House of Aces
by NeverMakesSense
Summary: Natsu and the boys have spent their lives growing up in Fairy Tail orphanage and now have jobs as entertainers. They thought their feelings against people would never change: Normal people are selfish and ignorant. However, their lives change when they meet a certain group of girls that help turn them back into their old selves. Focused on Nalu, but also plenty of other pairings!
1. The House

**So, one day I was looking at this picture I found on instagram (no idea who drew it, sorry) when I'm like, "HOLY CRAP THIS WOULD BE A COOL STORY IDEA!" So, me being me, I just started writing and decided to post this story before I had second thoughts. Please tell me if you liked it and if you want it continued. I must say, I've never really written a story without a plan in mind, but I have no freaking clue where this is gonna go. So, tell me what you think! **

**Disclaimer: I have no ownership of Fairy Tail. If I did, Natsu and Lucy would have their thirty babies by now :)**

* * *

Natsu walked into the large room, letting the thumping bass in the music fill him up. Closing his eyes, he breathed in the air, filled with the thick smell of cheap perfume and cologne, and calmly breathed out. He was working the floor tonight instead of one of the back rooms. He looked to his side and found Gray coping his ritual.

"You ready?" He asked, fiddling with his vest. The uniform for the diamonds had to wear consisted of an ice blue shirt left unbuttoned, and a black vest with dark brown pants. He scratched the corner of his eye where a small black diamond decorated his cheek.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Natsu snapped as he fell into his fiery persona. In reality the two boys, though they argued a lot, were pretty good friends. However, in the club they were enemies and so they tended to treat each other as such out of habit. The cool demeanor of a diamond was supposed to piss off the passion the hearts so openly displayed.

"Lets just go," Gajeel grumbled behind them, shoving the two boys forward. He was wearing the typical joker outfit; A dark suit with checkered sleeves and a red dress shirt, a black tie adorning his neck to finish it off. His pierced face helped add to the mischievous and darker air he was supposed to create around him.

"Where's Jellal and Elfman?" Natsu pulled on the chokers that were starting to strangle him. The uniform for the hearts looked different from the rest, since instead of a suit he wore a red t-shirt that clung to his muscled chest with a black jacket on top. The jacket, which looked to be made of leather, has a soft white lining on the inside and was covered with silver buttons and buckles. On his neck he wore two chokers, one red and one black, and the same pattern for his fingerless gloves. As for pants they all had to wear regular black trousers.

"Elfman is already out there and Jellal ran out on us," Gajeel reported as he continued to push the boys to the door. Outside they could hear try-hard giggles and drunken confessions from their "guests". They all took one more breath of the (relatively) clean air before stepping out through the doors.

"And here we go," Gray mumbled. He peeled away from their small group and disappeared into the maze of tables. Gajeel and Natsu split apart in the same fashion that Gray did.

Good-bye, Natsu. Hello Heart.

* * *

"Oh Gray, you're so cool!" Squealed yet another girl. Gray smirked in reply, stretching his arms out and around the women surrounding him. The one to his right was stroking his chest and her long nails were starting to cause him extreme discomfort. The one to his left was trying to discreetly feel up his leg, but the woman at his feet caught her act and was throwing out elbow jabs every time she got close to a certain...area.

"Cooler than this?" Gray clasped his hands together and mumbled an incantation. He opened them to revel a rose made completely of ice, giving it to the screeching girl. She almost fainted from excitement but was able to stay conscious. The other women around him shot her jealous looks; Gray was momentarily worried for her safety when she left. However, they were distracted by a new threat that came waltzing up to the group.

"You know what would be cooler?" The woman asked. Gray suppressed an agitated moan at the sight of her. She was a regular to the club and her name was Ultear. She was dressed in a dark purple dress, the material standing out nicely against her pale skin, that had a v-neck plunging down to her belly button. Red lipstick and hair tied into loose pig tails expressed a duality to her nature; Much like the voice of Morgan Freeman, she could probably tell you that she killed your family slowly and painfully but you would still be entranced and calmed by her innocent appearance. For some reason, this deadly beauty has set her eyes on him.

"What?" Gray played along. She smirked as she strode up to him, whispering into his ear what she wanted him to do and sticking some green in his back pocket. He mentally sighed and turned around to say a quick apology to the women behind him.

"Sorry ladies. Duty calls," he winked. Pulling off his vest and shirt, he threw the warm material at them and led Ultear to the mass of grinding bodies that made up the main dance floor. In that mass he saw his fellow coworkers dancing with their "guests", at the mercy of the requests by the women (and a few men) that were slipping them money.

_It's amazing what humans are willing to do to survive,_ Gray mused as they danced.

* * *

"Wow, Gajeel, you really did that?" A woman gasped in wonder and terror. Gajeel smirked in her direction and chuckled. Another had a wicked smile on her face and laughed along with him. A third was feeling up his muscles and skimming her fingers along his piercings.

"The guy had it coming for him," he shrugged, adding, "I _always_ pay out punishments," with a wink at the ladies around him. They all giggled at his suggestive joke and crowded him even more. On the inside he was starting to freak out; Gajeel never was one for company, except for his cat Pantherlily. The girls around him was triggering his claustrophobia, but he just pushed it down.

"Well, Gajeel," one of them purred, tangling her fingers in his hair, "I haven't been a good girl lately..." she trailed off suggestively. The others echoed their agreements, sounding more like whiny parrots than grown up women. He chuckled again, loosening his tie with one finger and pulling out a pack of cards with another.

"Time for a punishment game, eh?" He smirked. They all squealed in delight and crowded even closer to him. _Damn, I better get more money in tonight than usual, for all this crowding,_ he growled inside, keeping up his appearance on the exterior.

* * *

"THAT'S SO MAN!" Elfman yelled as the women (and some idolizing men) laughed. Currently he had a bench full of people lifted above his head while simultaneously participating in a drinking contest with the bartender Cana. He was quickly loosing, for no one could beat the drunken beast, and as he became drunker and drunker his outbursts became more frequent and funny.

"You're so strong, Elfman," one of the women sighed, eying the tightness of the sleeves on the Clubs uniform. He wore a green shirt that was probably a size too small (even though it was an extra large- lets face it, no shirt size could contain his muscles) and thus clung tightly to his arms and chest. He usually had a turtleneck black leather jacket with intersecting green buckles, but that seemed to had disappeared when he started the drinking contest. Green fingerless gloves were adorning his large hands and his baggy black pants were staring to slip lower, which was delighting the crowd surrounding him.

"Yeah, and your muscles are so...big," a man added, winking at him at the last part. On the inside Elfman shuddered. For one, he did NOT play on that team, but because of his job he had to treat all of his "guests" the same and do the same services. On the outside he put on a brave face and shouted.

"DUH, 'CAUSE I'M A MAN!" He threw up the bench he was still holding and caught it once again, the crowd roaring with delight and the people on the bench screaming in fright. He set down the bench and the people that were occupying it started to pull him toward the dance floor.

"Come on, let's dance!" Three girls practically glued themselves to his body and didn't really give him much of a choice in the matter. But, really, did anyone here have a choice anymore?

* * *

"Wow, Natsu!" The three girls around him clapped at his fire juggling skills. He smiled before swallowing the flames up and putting the clubs down. One of the women started to fan herself, her face looking pink, complaining, "Damn, its so hot!"

"That's the heat of my passion," Natsu replied smoothly. She smiled and giggled, snuggling into his side. Their hands were drifting all over his body and he could barley stop himself from hitting them away. One of them took a deep breath from her cigarette and put it out on the ashtray next to the couch. Natsu tried to contain his gag from the rancid smell. A fourth woman walked up from behind him and slid her arms around his neck and down his shirt.

"It's so hot, Natsu," she whispered into his ear. He shivered in disgust, but the woman took it as pleasure and desire than as its true meaning. He couldn't blame her though; all of the people here were selfish and full of themselves. That's why they were hanging out in a freaking host club than out with friends. "I don't know how you can stand it." She raked her nails over his abdomen.

"You're right, ladies, it _is _ a bit warm in here," he turned up his internal temperature and allowed his magic to affect his clothing, effectively searing off his shirt as a result. His chest was glistening in what little light the club offered, appealing to the women surrounding him. They showered him with bills, discreetly being shoved into his pants pocket but they all knew they were doing it. The woman behind him kissed his neck and the one next to him let out a little huff of annoyance at the gesture. _Geeze, women get jealous so easily_, he thought to himself.

"I guess the flames of my love can't be contained sometimes," he kissed the hand of the jealous one, instantly making her face light up in joy. The third one, probably feeling left out at this point, crawled even closer to him, hand still exploring his body.

The feeling of disgust rose up in him again, one so fierce he almost couldn't contain it. Every night, him and his friends were subjected to this humiliating act, all for a couple of dollars to pay for food for the next day. Here these people were, allowing this to go on and _enjoying_ every second of it because they had deluded themselves to think that these men actually gave a shit about them. Natsu wasn't one of the smartest people, probably since he never had a full education since he was little and abandoned by his parents, but when it came to normal people he knew one true fact. They were all selfish and incredibly ignorant to the horrible world around them. Natsu's dear friends held similar views on the matter, and never before in their lives have they meet anyone else that was able to sway their opinion on a grand scale.

The girls pressed closer to their entertainer, giggling in their ignorant bubbles. He put on a happy face and joked and flirted like he always did. All the while, he was wishing on an imaginary star to come and rescue him and his friends from this hell.

* * *

In an apartment somewhere else, Lucy Heartfilia took a moment from her writing to sneeze before continuing her work.

* * *

**So, once again, PLEASE REVIEW! It's important to know if I'm a crap writer or not! Also, tell me if you see similar stories to this one, since I'm kinda curious to know if there are. And, if anyone is confused, the boys are working in a host/stripper joint. Kinda like Ouran High School Host Club meets a stripper club.  
**

**-NeverMakesSense**


	2. The Girls

**Hey guys, here's chapter 2! Thank you so much for the follows, favorites and reviews :) Seriously, seeing those in my inbox really makes me happy. **

**A special thanks to dragfillia, who was able to tell me the story behind the picture. Apparently it's a parody for the anime Amnesia. I had no idea it actually had a back story of sorts. If anyone finds out the original artist, I'd like to know!**

**Disclaimer: I regrettably do not own Fairy Tail. Nor do I own any bacon at the moment. It's quite a tragedy, really. **

* * *

Lucy could feel the warm sun on her face as the rays of light filtered through her apartment window when she began to stir from her slumber. The sound of soft breathing and rustling sheets filled the air. It was surprisingly a quiet morning; usually the screaming arguments between the old elderly couple that owned the apartment complex she lived in could be heard day in and day out. Now nothing was stopping her from getting out of her warm bed, she could sleep in as long as she wan-

"LUCY PICK UP. LUCY PICK UP. LUCY PICK UP," her phone screeched at her. The blonde winced at the horrible ring tone her friends set for her phone. With the wedding being so close, they had to make sure that she was actually going to pick up her cell instead of losing herself in her literature and forgetting about the world. She groaned, risking her arm to the cold of her apartment for a few seconds to grab the annoying device from her nightstand.

"Hello?" She slurred, her tongue still thick from sleep. On the other end she heard about five different voices trying to talk to her at the same time. They were blending together to make a strange, strangled roar. Lucy imagined that the roar belonged to a giant beast, one that hasn't been seen by the human eye for hundreds of years...and was somehow able to use a cell phone. She sighed mentally. Technology always seemed to ruin her delusions when they were getting fun.

"Lucy, are you there?" The roar stopped. Juvia had finally reigned in the other girls, her stress filled tone filling Lucy's eardrums. Perking up, Lucy grunted as a response, words still not possible. She looked over to see the time to be 7 am. _Ugh, so early. This hour should kill itself. Huh, time stopping via suicide. That could be- _

"LUCY HEARTFILIA!" Her friend Erza screamed into the phone when the party noticed the line was more silent than appropriate. The girl snapped herself out of her thoughts and turned her attention back to the phone call.

"Yeah?" She sat up and rubbed her eyes. There was no helping it now- sleep was about as far away as the moon at this point. There was a collective sigh on the other end of the call, but at this point in their long friendship her friends were way to used to her antics. A slight wrestling of the phone and Juvia was victorious in getting back to the point at hand.

"Do you know what tonight is?" Her friend asked excitedly. Lucy had the answer in mind, but as she gazed out the window she decided to have a fun conversation before her friends decided to whip out their inner therapists. The sun was so beautiful this morning, no need to ruin it with their questions, though she knew they all meant well and loved them dearly.

"National Bacon Day?" She quipped. At the thought of the wonderful (and fattening, but who cares? Bacon is a beautiful blessing that was bestowed upon this earth from the Bacon Gods) treat, she started to drool. Might as well get up now instead of sulking because she couldn't get back to sleep. There was yet another sigh on the end of the line as her friends realized what she was doing.

"No, Lucy, there is sadly no bacon involved," Lucy could practically hear the eye roll at the end of the statement, but the giggle gave away her friend's amusement, "Since this conversation will only make Juvia hungry for food, she will just say it: IT'S THE BEST BACHOLORETTE PARTY EVER!" Lucy held the phone away from her ear as the echoed screams from the girls threatened to rupture her eardrums. She set the phone on the table and started to rummage through her fridge. Hmm, where did she put that last package of bacon?

"Lucy, you know we love you, and it would really make Juvia happy if you came tonight!" She pleaded, making Lucy pause in her search through her fridge. She stared at the bright yellow walls of her small kitchenette, fighting with herself, but resumed with the search for her breakfast. "Please Lucy, it'll be really fun! So, what do you say?" There were echoes to her question in the background. Probably Bisca, Levy, Erza, Juvia and Mira were scrunched around the phone awaiting her reply.

Lucy wanted to make her friends happy, but she really didn't think she was ready to be around that many people, not in the place she assumed their group was going to go to. No, she wasn't comfortable at all. In fact, she was about to tell her friends this exactly when at that moment she spotted the prize she was searching so valiantly for. "YES!" She whooped, holding the package of bacon in the air like a trophy. It was silent for a moment before both parties digested what just happened: Lucy realized her mistake, and the girls thought that their friend just said _yes._

"Really? THANK YOU SO MUCH LUCY JUVIA LOVES YOU WITH ALL HER HEART!" Juvia screeched into the phone with joy. Lucy's eyes widened and she tried to deny her friends that just happened. They weren't listening to her at all; the excitement was way too much and it was starting to effect Lucy as well. "Listen, we'll pick you up at 9, okay? Just get dressed in that dress you bought last time we went shopping," Lucy scrunched her nose in distaste at the thought of that _thing_, "and be ready to party! Talk to you later. Love ya!" The final click of the phone sounded like the click of a gun. Lucy slowly raised two fingers to her temple and fired, falling back into one of her beat up chairs.

"Oh, what have I done?" She groaned, letting her head fall so her forehead slammed onto the table. She continued to hit her forehead on the slightly splintery tabletop until a burning smell reached her nostrils. "NO! NOT THE BACON!" She screamed in horror, running to the frying pan and ripping it off the stove top. Dejectedly, she stared at the charcoal that was supposed to be her delicious breakfast. She sighed as she opened her trash and dumped the remains into the trash. This was like an omen of what was about to come. Of course, her mother would always say to her that a bad omen was always a good thing in disguise, so maybe her bacon was sacrificed so her night won't make her want to kill herself. _Oh, that's a cool story idea. A hero sacrificed his bacon..._ Lucy ran to her desk and took out her mighty quill and notebook. Words seemed to pour out of her and soon she was lost in a world of adventure and misfortune and bacon warriors.

Lucy liked this world. Here it was safe from the painful emotions her normal life seemed to love to bring her way. Nothing could hurt her here. Not even _those men _could touch her. Really, who could blame her for wanting to stay there forever?

* * *

"Natsu, get up!" Someone was violently shaking him awake. Natsu cracked open an eyelid, squinting against the sunlight that was streaming in through his small window. The mystery person was just a large blob in his sight, not taking any shape. However, judging from the fact that it mostly consisted of pale skin and a dash of black, Natsu could guess only one person.

"Go die, Gray," he hissed sacrificing one of his pillows to throw at the icebrick's head. He heard the whoosh in the air that told him Gray was able to avoid the attack. The pillow was thrown back to him with much more force, making Natsu groan in pain. "Go put some clothes on before fighting me!"

"Natsu, what are you talking ab- WHAT THE HELL?!" Gray looked down to find himself almost naked once again. Ever since the boys started working at the House, his stripping habit grew even worse then it already was.

"C'mon, we gotta go soon!" Gajeel yelled as he burst into the room. Natsu wondered for a moment as to why he agreed to share an apartment with these horrible people. Oh, yeah, they were all dirt poor and no one would let them get a good job! Funny how life plays out, huh?

"What is so important that it requires me to get up?" Natsu groaned. The two boys looked at each other, both repressing the urge to face palm, and instead chose to summon Elfman, who had agreed to stop by today. The muscled man walked in and threw Natsu over his shoulder. Gray and Gajeel rushed past them and started grabbing their stuff. Natsu was still dazed and confused, especially since the time read 11am. They usually never had to go in before 6 or 7 pm.

"God Natsu, you're so slow," Gray groaned. Gajeel threw Natsu his heart uniform, including yet another brand new t-shirt since he used the burn trick again.

"We have three private group entertainments today," Jellal popped out of nowhere to explain. Natsu couldn't suppress the high pitched squeak of fear that escaped his mouth, and he fell over with his shirt still stuck over his arms. He heard similar reactions from the other three boys, though they were much more controlled. "Sorry, guys. Your door was open," He shrugged and ignored the glares shot his way. The boys used to be able to take their friend's ninja moves in stride when he lived with them. About a year ago, Jellal met a some girl named Erza and moved out of the small apartment. He never did bring her to the house to show her to them, but the boys understood he wanted to keep as much of his life a secret as possible for now. The girl never knew that he was living with friends in the first place. Elfman, though he visits so often he practically lives there, lives with his two sisters in a house twenty minutes away.

"Ugh, great. More women- wait, they're all women right?" Gray and Gajeel nodded their heads, "More women throwing money at us so they can play out a fantasy before they get married," Natsu almost hanged himself when he scoffed while tightening one of his chokers. The other boys nodded in agreement.

"Actually, Natsu, I'm pretty sure one of them is for a recently made single woman," Jellal chuckled at Natsu's hardly suppressed groan. The boy shot him another death glare.

"Hey, do you want to fi-" He started toward Jellal but Gajeel pushed in front of him and shot him a look, tilting his head to the floor. Natsu looked guiltily at the floor, the burn marks weren't looking good against the carpet at all, and backed down. "Anyway, where were you last night?" He changed the subject abruptly, the others looking curiously at their friend for his answer. They were used to his sudden disappearances but have never heard the reason for them.

"Something came up and I had to run out," Jellal offered vaguely. The boys just decided to drop it; when Jellal was in his mystery mode there was never a way to coerce him out of it. Gray's eyes drifted to the clock, noted the late hour, and cursed.

"Shit, we're late!" He yelled. The boys shared a few choice swears as they grabbed the rest of the things they needed for work and ran out of the apartment. They probably looked ridiculous in the garb they were wearing, but people around here were used to it. It was one of the, well, not poorer per say, but not the most middle class of areas.

It started to rain as they ran towards the downtown area. Natsu looked up to the sky, pausing in his sprint to stare at the clouds. He was trying to decide whether or not it was a bad omen or something when a car came up and almost splashed a giant puddle of muddy water on him.

Bad. Definitely bad.

* * *

Lucy started at herself in the mirror, trying to fix her hair but it just wouldn't fall right. She was already dolled up in the "party dress" the girls had made her buy a few weeks back. It was a bit too revealing in her opinion; it was a sleeveless dark magenta dress with a low v-neck and a slit running up the side of her right leg. If it was up to her, she'd be in a sweater and jeans, but apparently that was just her "emotional damage" speaking, as her friends called it. Her eyes drifted to a wooden box one the corner of her desk as she thought about the summer when she was ten and her current pickle. Her fingers reached out to graze the lid against her will, but a knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts. She reluctantly walked over and opened the door, grabbing her purse on the way out, and joined her friends in the hallway.

"Lucy, you look amazing!" Mira exclaimed. The rest of the girls nodded and shared similar compliments. Lucy shifted awkwardly and mumbled a thanks but she still felt incredibly uncomfortable in her outfit. Juvia and Erza looped their arms through Lucy's and started to lead the girls out of the complex.

"Come on, Lucy, have some fun!" Levy skipped in front of them. She looked like a fairy in her dress; it was orange and came down to her knees, with long sleeves and a white trim around the edges. She was so small, even in her high heels, lightly stepping on the floor in a nice rhythm that resembled a dance.

"Yeah, nothing's more fun then being with a crowd of pervy clubbers! With their peopley peopleness and facey faces and whatnot," Lucy exclaimed with mock enthusiasm, causing her friends to laugh. Lucy really was an oddball to them; though her strange behavior could caused some trouble they all loved her just the same. None of them really knew why she acted the way she did, all they knew was that it was something in her childhood.

"Ah, but what you don't know," Juvia started grandly, "is that this is a different club. Instead of random men stripping down into their underwear, the boys are entertainers and we are the guests," she re adjusted her tiara and slid into Bisca's minivan. Lucy still couldn't see the difference between the two ideas; frankly, they both meant the same thing to her.

"Lucy, get in!" Erza called from the backseat. Lucy stared at the open door for a moment, trying to decide.

Get in or run away?

* * *

**And thus concludes the second chapter! So, what will our weird Lucy do? Who are the mysterious men she was referring to? Why is bacon so important to her? Is Natsu and Lucy's omen good or bad? FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON HOUSE OF ACES!**

**….**

**Sorry, I've always wanted to do that. But, leave a review and tell me any theories you make up and stuff! **

**Also, if it is annoying you, I apologize for the extreme out of character acting here. Basically everyone in this story was affected when they were little, so as time wears on Lucy will become Lucy and Natsu will be Natsu and everything will be back to normal. We just have to wait and see. **

**-NeverMakesSense**


	3. And so they meet

**And here we go, chapter 3! Thank you for all of those wonderful reviews, favorites and follows! Seeing those in my mailbox gets me all fired up!**

**…..**

**wow, that sounded way more dirty than I thought it would.**

**Anyway, special thanks to ghostbones, who let me know that the name of the artist is rusky boz, or rboz on tumblr. If you guys haven't seen her other art, check it out! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, nor do I own the cover picture. Both are wwwaaayyy out of my league. **

"Ugh, I need a shower," Natsu shuddered. The last group they entertained consisted of a bunch of single women attacking them like ravenous wolves; they had Gray reduced to his underwear in minutes. Thank god that none of them could handle their alcohol well and they had to leave early, or who knows what the boys would have had to do to appease them. The others grunted their agreement, and Natsu looked over to find Gray still in his underwear.

"Feeling a little drafty there?" Natsu teased. It took a minute of looking at him strangely before Gray finally realized what he meant. Cursing, he quickly left the room to find out where his pants went, praying all the while that one of the girls didn't make off with them. Sadly, they were one of the types that probably wouldn't find shame in stealing clothes.

"Well, I'm off," Elfman announced. The others looked at him in surprise, since he wasn't one who would just disappear on the boys during group entertainments, always saying that staying to the end made him more manly.

"Where are you going?" Gray walked back into the room wearing his pants, though his shirt and vest were still missing. He was probably so used to being shirtless that he didn't even notice. Gajeel grabbed the missing cloth from where it was hiding behind the couch and threw it to him.

"Nee-san has some party to go to, so I have to go home and stay with Lisana," he started changing into his regular clothes and putting the others in a book bag. Keeping busy so the memories of hurt wouldn't devour him, like they were starting to with Natsu.

"Tell her we said hi," Natsu said, the terrible memory retreating to the back of his mind. Gray nudged Natsu's arm and wiggled his eyebrows at him suggestively. Ever since they were kids in Fairy Tail Natsu's friends were convinced he would date Lisanna, something he has been denying ever since.

"You wanna fight, ice face?" He yelled, blushing like a tomato. Gray smirked, avoiding the wild punches Natsu threw his way with ease. Jellal sighed at the two's antics and rushed around the fight to make sure nothing important was frozen or burned. Elfman just looked at the two strangely, but quickly gave up on them and walked out the door to be quickly replaced by Fried. Gray and Natsu paused in their struggle, slightly surprised that the relatively new worker to the House was already elevated to being an Ace after only three months of service. Usually a worker would have to wait years to be able to entertain in the backrooms; they worked in groups and still were paid more than working on the floor.

"This next one is a Bachlorette party," Jellal looked at the slip of paper that they were provided for each group they were supposed to entertain. "Her name is...Juvia."

"That name sounds familiar..." Fried mused, mostly to himself but the others heard him and also pondered the name. Natsu thought back and remembered hearing a name like that on the news. Something about the Olympics and swimming...

Gray suddenly threw a punch towards his face and the two resumed their brawl.

"The girls are ready," Bob popped his head into the changing room. Jellal and Gajeel jumped in surprise at that a man of his size was able to walk around unheard by anyone. Bob ignored them and instead threw a glare towards the fighting boys, marching up to them and grabbing their ears. He painfully dragged them toward the back rooms with the others filing silently behind. Letting them go in front of the door, he hurried away to his office. Gray opened the door, leading the way into the fray of excited squeals.

* * *

"Come on, Lucy!" Levy tried to pull the reluctant blonde out of the car. Bisca's party van had come to a stop in front of a gaudy looking building downtown. It was pretty big, painted black with the name _House of Aces_ written in red neon over the entrance. There were playing cards decorating the blank spaces behind the sign. Already Lucy could hear music and obnoxious laughter drifting from the inside. Erza gave her a loving shove from behind to get her onto the sidewalk.

"Don't worry Lucy-," Erza started to reassure her friend, only to be interrupted by her work phone. Flipping it open in annoyance she answered, the rest of the girls staring at her when she snapped a reply and smashed it closed. Turning around sadly she faced to the disappointed bride-to-be. "Sorry, Juvia, something came up at work. I have to go."

"It's okay," Juvia lied, forcing a smile on her face, "You just have to make it up to Juvia with the best wedding gift ever!" Laughing, Erza said her good byes and walked over to one of the many taxis who were idly waiting on the curb. She was off to her job as a bodyguard for one of the most powerful men in the country, Laxus Dreyer. Lucy always wondered why he kept a personal guard of three next to his side when he was once said to be one of the most powerful mages, but money had to be made and she was happy Erza was able to get the job.

"Well, lets go in!" Mira led the way to the door and was startled by a big man with small white wings who beat her to opening it. The man swung his arm grandly with a cheerful "Welcome!" and hurried the girls in, pushing them around the edges of the crowd to one of the many doors that decorated the back wall. Lucy found herself in a small, dimly lit room. There were couches along the walls, a small wooden table in the center holding several bottles of wine, and candles on every other surface whose light reflected off of the dark walls. The girls sat on the couches as the man introduced himself.

"I'm Bob, one of the owners of the House," he smiled at each of them,"Now, which one of you wonderful ladies is Juvia?" His searching eyes found Juvia's raised hand instantly. Reaching behind him, he grabbed a glittery, plastic tiara which he promptly placed on her head. The big blue jewel in the middle and light blue fluff along the bottom matched perfectly with her dark blue dress. Bob nodded with approvement and started to walk out of the room, but paused at the door with a curious look on his face. He shook his head and smiled, hurrying off into a swarming mass of bodies.

Lucy started to feel a nervous pain in her stomach, realization finally hitting her that she was actually in a club and not dreaming at home. She cast a glance at the others and found Levy was already downing her first glass of wine while trying to convince Juvia that she should have some, which the bluenette replied a big fat "NO!" to. Mira was starting to tease Bisca about what a certain cowboy coworker would think if he found out she was at the House. Sucking in a few breaths, Lucy tried to calm down and tune into the excitement that was thrumming through the room. The door started to open and all eyes were glued to it as five men walked in.

"Hello ladies," a raven haired man lead the group in, four others trailing behind him. They were dressed up in strange uniforms that each had the crest of each of the card suits on them, except for the fifth who had a joker hat instead. For a moment a wave of panic passed through them, though to a normal person it was probably unrecognizable, and the leader continued smoothly, "We are the Aces in this House and will be entertaining you tonight." He winked at Juvia, making her squeal in excitement. Lucy sighed from the corner of the room.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

As the boys walked in they paused for a split second, surprised and mortified to find Mira sitting in the room. She looked over at them, a look of excitement in her eyes, but not one of recognition. They proceeded to walk in, and as Gray introduced them she still didn't give them a sign that she knew who they were. Fried shot Natsu a look and nodded_, _so he relaxed and focused on the task on hand. Usually Fried kept to himself, so the only thing that Natsu knew about his magic is that he wrote a bunch of rules, which is possibly why Mira wasn't realizing who they were.

Natsu scanned the room. Over the years of working in the House, he and every one else had learned to read people like an open book. They were able to judge their guest's mood, personality and romantic type as soon as they heard two sentences from the guest. In his cursory scan, he saw one really nervous girl, another that was totally drunk already, Mira was smiling cheerfully and the bride that they were focusing on was very excited but also embarrassed. The last girl was sitting in the corner and looked like she was in pain, which struck Natsu as odd. Nervousness and embarrassment was normal for first timers, but he has never seen someone looking pained during an entertainment.

They all adjusted to the group dynamic and started to spread out. Gray went toward the main girl and started to suavely talk to her while Gajeel took on the drunken bluenette. Jellal moved onto a green haired girl and Fried maneuvered next to Mira. Natsu walked toward the middle table and started to hand out drinks, deciding to leave the last girl alone for a while.

"So ladies, how about a card game?" Gajeel pulled out his ever handy deck of cards, grinning like a maniac he was supposed to be. Next to him the blue haired girl laughed boisterously. Her friends looked like they were trying not to face palm at her drunken state. She reached for the cards and for a bottle of wine but her friends were quicker.

"Juvia thinks that if Levy drinks more it will end up like Spring Break Junior year," the bride, well, Juvia, pulled the bottle out of her hand's reach. Over their heads the boys shot questioning looks at each other.

"You're just jealous that you're the emotional drunk, Juvia," she retaliated, making her friend blush.

"That means that you're overflowing with passion," Gray said smoothly, Juvia's face turning into a deep tomato red blush. Mira started to giggle at her embarressment and from the corner the blonde had a faint look of amusement on her face, though she still looked uncomfortable. The bride glared at her treacherous friends. Jellal shot Natsu a look and in response he upped the temperature in the room. Immediately the group was able to feel the heat.

"Dang, it's hot in here," the green haired woman fanned herself, finally calming down after a glass or two of alcohol.

"Sorry, I can't keep control of my flames around such beautiful women," Natsu grinned mischievously at them before his shirt was once again consumed by his controlled flames. On the inside he shuddered at the cheesy line, yet the girls were grinning stupidly at him. Not like he was surprised, that line was part of the unwritten script the boys followed for success.

"I'd rather keep it cool," Gray pulled off his shirt, and threw it in a corner where he will probably forget it. The bride stared at his chest with starts in her eyes. The boys followed the change seamlessly; Gajeel rolled up his sleeves to reveal his pierced arms, Jellal took off his coat and unbuttoned his shirt, and Fried took off his thick jacket. The heat stayed, making the air heavier by pairing with the smell and sound. A change in the songs outside stirred a reaction amongst the women.

"Oh my God, I love this song!" Juvia exclaimed. Gray stood and offered her a hand up to dance, the others following their lead. Well, except for the drunk, Levy, and Gajeel, who were content with starting a game of poker; by the state of things, the metal studded man would be in his underwear in the next two minutes. Natsu rose his glass saying cheers and the sound of clinking glasses filled the air. Over Mira's shoulder Fried flicked his eyes toward the lonely blonde in the corner. Natsu sighed before sticking a smile on his face and walking over to her.

* * *

It was getting to be too much for Lucy. The heat, the excruciating small space, the strangers were all mixing together to form a deadly concoction she did NOT want to be anywhere near to. She was happy that her friends were happy, but Lucy was about thisclose to screaming and high tailing it out of there like she usually did when her trips outside got to be too much.

And then the pink haired man walked up to her with a smile on his face. She looked up at him, wondering for the second time why and how is his hair _pink_ of all colors. Was it natural or dyed? Why would someone want to dye their hair pink? His smile also unsettled her. It was meant to look happy and inviting, but underneath she could see something closer to annoyance than happiness.

"Hey," he greeted, trying for suave but failed. She shifted in her seat, her eyes not directly meeting his, and muttered a small hello. He stared at her strangely, which she easily ignored since she was so used to it, and instead looked at her friends. Juvia looked like she was in a dream while she was talking to her Ace, but when he wasn't looking she darted her eyes to the Heart in front of her and back to Lucy. Levy wriggled her eyebrows, Mira and Bisca both giggled and rolled their eyes at her pained look. Oh, such good and supportive friends she had.

"Do you want to step out for a second?" He asked uncertainly. Startled that he was still trying for a conversation, Lucy looked up and nodded dazedly. He grabbed her hand and led her to a nondescript door on the back wall of the room. Lucy didn't even have time to be surprised of the door's existence before he pulled her into a long, narrow hallway. The music was muted to background noise, and the air was stale but better than the scent filled air in the club. However, the small space forced the Ace to be scrunched up against her.

"Can you put a shirt on?" Lucy asked, looking away with a light pink dusting her cheeks. The young man looked at her, surprise written all over his face at her unexpected request.

"Why?" He asked incredulously.

"Because a man shouldn't be shirtless in front of a woman," she huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, staring at the cracked floor. It was silent for a moment as he processed her odd behavior; he probably never had to deal with a woman like her.

"You're weird," he stated. Lucy looked him in the eye, something she hasn't done to a stranger in a while.

"Says the man with the _pink_ hair," she retaliated.

"At least the hair is natural. You just showed up to a club demanding someone to get dressed instead of stripping," he saw her disbelieving look at the fact that his hair was natural.

"Your hair is an impossible color," she stated monotonously.

"I can assure you, there are many women around here that can back me up," he muttered darkly. Lucy looked at him curiously, wondering what he meant, but he just blushed and didn't elaborate , instead changing the subject. "Look, I know what is normal and what isn't. You are definitely weird."

"So I'm a little odd. It isn't my fault," Lucy pushed back the memories of the people who actually were at fault. There was no need for them to make her night even worse.

"Isn't that letting whatever is at fault win in the end?" He asked. The thought made her pause and think, but he suddenly grabbed her hand once again and squeezed past her to go back into the room. Before they walked in he stopped and turned around to give her a small smile.

"I'm Natsu, by the way," he said.

"Lucy," she smiled back. He opened the door and let her enter the room first. When she walked in Lucy found her friends in the same places, which isn't surprising since they weren't gone for more than five minutes, but they were all at least one drink more under the influence then they were last time she saw them. Levy was laughing at the Joker, as he was reduced to his underwear and only had a small stack of bills in return. Juvia was starting to tear up as she talked about the wedding with the cool Diamond. Bisca was reverting more and more to her native southern accent and Mira was looking around and making up love matches for everyone. When Lucy walked back into the room Juvia detached herself from her Ace (who had lost his pants somehow) and grabbed Lucy into a giant hug.

"Lucy! Juvia was so worried that you ran away!" She wailed, clinging to the blonde for dear life. _Yup,_ Lucy thought to herself, _Juvia is definitely drunk. _

"Why would I do that?" Lucy was starting to struggle in her friend's tight embrace. Though she has been friends with Juvia for years, she still doesn't like to be hugged by her for that long. Its part of her claustrophobia.

"Because Lucy doesn't like people!" Juvia squeezed the poor blonde even tighter. Lucy tried to wiggle from her hold but it took a couple minutes of waiting to finally let go. Juvia returned to where she was and the session continued on normally for the rest of the time, with a bunch of drinking and dancing and Levy kicking every one's ass at poker.

* * *

"Well, ladies, it was fun entertaining you," Jellal said smoothly. The rest of the time had flown by in a blur of drunken laughter and the shedding of a piece or two of clothing, and now the shift was finally over. The boys were saying their grand good-bye and handing the women over to Bob to be escorted out again. As they walked out, Natsu reached out and grabbed Lucy's hand without realizing what he was actually doing. She gave him a questioning look, but instead of answering he took out a pen and wrote a string of numbers on her hand. The blonde retreated her hand quickly and walked out of the room to catch up with her friends.

"What fake number did you give her?" Gajeel chuckled. Usually, if a particular guest was very needy and asked for a number, Natsu and the other boys would give them a fake one to make them shut up.

"It wasn't a fake," Natsu was just as taken aback as the others were; he had no idea what possessed him to give the girl his number, but the deed was done and now he was curious if she would actually get the courage to speak to him.

Truth be told, Natsu really wouldn't mind if she did. There was something about Lucy's strange behavior that made him wish they had talked a little bit longer in the hallway.

* * *

**I have been fighting a long, epic battle with this chapter for over a week. I'm still not sure who won. For some reason I have the sinking feeling that I lost.**

**Review and tell me what you think!**

**-NeverMakesSense**


	4. What is normal?

**Aw, guys, you make me so happy with all the lovely reviews! Its nice to know that not everyone hates my writing :) Now, the story really begins!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own our beloved Fairy Tail, just the story idea. **

* * *

_Natsu was stuck in a void of silent darkness. He tried to reach out to touch something, anything, to find out where the heck he was, but all he grabbed was empty air. There was no sound, not even a smell that could give him any bearings. Tentatively he took a step forward, and hitting nothing he took another one, all the while waving his hands around him in case there was a wall. After a while of walking in one direction he would turn and go another way, but he never hit the boundary of the place nor did his eyes adjust to the inky blackness. Then, suddenly, Natsu heard a foot scuff against the ground. He swung around and started to run in the direction of the noise. _

_ "Hello?" he yelled out, getting no reply. He ran faster and faster to catch up with whatever had made the noise but it was like he was just slowing down instead of speeding up. Finally, Natsu just gave up and stopped, breathing hard. He still had no idea where he was, but the floor seemed to be sticky with something. Reaching down to touch it, he felt a warm liquid on the ground. He sniffed his hand, a coppery smell filling his nose._

_ Blood. Lots and lots of blood. _

_ Natsu fell back in surprise, landing right in the middle of another puddle. He scrabbled backwards but couldn't get out of it. A light flashed on, on of those center stage ones, like this was some sick play. He squinted against the light and tried to make out the figure who was standing in the light. The person, who was covered in red from head to toe, tilted their head and started to stagger towards him._

_ "Natsu," a familiar voice called out. His eyes widened as he registered whose voice it was. She was closer to him and now Natsu could see her trademark white hair and short pink dress._

_ "Lisanna?" he whispered. She stared gravely at him, her bloodied face shining in the light. Deep inside his mind he knew this Lisanna wasn't the real one; she was her younger, childish self, and she didn't have that wonderful smile on her face. She was always smiling, no matter what had happened to her. She walked closer to him and reached her hand out to touch his hair, smearin some red into his rosy spikes._

_ "Why didn't you save me, Natsu?" She asked in a hollow voice. Natsu couldn't answer, it was like his words were swept out whenever he tried to open his mouth. This frustrated the little girl in front of him. "Why didn't you stop them?" She asked. Her voice echoed, and a bunch of Lisanna's were staring at him with accusing looks. He still couldn't answer, and the disappointed girl walked away from him, back into the darkness._

_ "Wait, Lisanna!" He scrambled after her with his regained voice but the girl didn't come back for him. "Lisanna!" He screamed into the nothingness. The light was starting to fade again. _

_ "LISANNA!"_

Natsu shot up, breathing hard, and heard his obnoxious ringtone filling the air. He groaned and grabbed the phone, wondering who was calling so late.

* * *

Lucy couldn't fall asleep. She had tried everything she could think of; there were apparently 11,563 sheep that hopped over her bed, she read about the history of yarn, and in her hand she had an empty glass of what was warm milk. She couldn't seem to stop thinking about what Natsu and Juvia had said to her earlier. It was pretty true, after all, that if something made her feel uncomfortable she would run away. She did when she saw the giant crowd of people at Erza's birthday party, she ran away from her home, from her childhood memories. Juvia was marrying Lyon in two weeks and she still wasn't comfortable talking to him. Lucy was always running, and maybe Natsu had a point. She was still being controlled by _them_, something she had vowed she would never let happen ever again. She could still remember it.

_"You'll always be different than everyone now," said one of the men. He towered over Lucy's small, quivering frame and the other one came up behind her and took out her gag. She let out a yelp of pain he grabbed her throat. The first one closed in on her, laughing evilly all the while. _

_ "Mama," she whimpered, "Help me!" The second one let out a sadistic chuckle before gagging her once again. _

_ "No one can help you now," he smirked. _

"It stops now. No more running," Lucy said out loud. _I really have to stop talking to myself, _she added as a side thought. Looking at her hand, which still had the number scrawled across it, she got an insanely marvelous idea.

_ "Seriously, I know what is normal and what isn't. You are definitely weird." He added._

Maybe Natsu could help her stop running if he was apparently a guru of human behavior. She grabbed her phone and dialed the number on her hand before she could find a reason to make herself back out. It rang twice before a disgruntled voice answered the phone.

"What?" She heard him groan as a greeting. Lucy paused for a second, thinking; she could still hang up and go back to her normal. She could live safely forever. But that would mean that she lost, that she broke the promise she had made to herself. She was once a Celestial Spirit mage; a promise was a sacred practice to her.

"Natsu?" she whispered. The other side of the line was dead silent, not even the boy's breathing could be heard. Lucy was worried that he had hung up on her and she was just stupidly sitting there with her phone, but then she heard him.

"Luigi?" He asked, amazed. Lucy glared into the phone at his mistake, then after a couple of seconds she realized it had no effect since he couldn't see her. Another one of the many reasons why she found technology to be disappointing.

"My name is Lucy," she snapped at him, momentarily wondering how he was able to get her simple name mixed up. He snorted at her correction as a reply.

"Look, if you called me at," there was a pause as both adults looked at the time, "3 AM just to yell at me, I'm going to hang up. Feel free to continue on without me," he yawned and she heard him move the phone away from him.

"HOW DO YOU ACT WHEN YOU'RE NORMAL?!" she screamed into the device, panicked that he was actually going to hang up. In the silence that ensued she could hear her landlady wake up and move around, but she just started yelling at her husband instead of going up to Lucy's room. She breathed out a sigh of relief and went back to anxiously listening for his reply.

"Well," Natsu's shocked voice replied, "you have to do a lot of things."

"Teach me," she commanded with a wavering voice. Never in the past twelve years of her life had she given a command to anyone. Another snort came from his side at her weak voice, causing her to scowl.

"Why?" He laughed.

"Because I'll pay you. It'll be like you are entertaining me without the stripping," she paused for a second while a thought occurred to her, "Unless normal people strip their clothes. Do they?" She realized after her question that she wandered off topic.

"If I say yes, will you promise to never call me at this time ever again?" He sighed. A smile stretched across Lucy's face and she nodded enthusiastically.

"Lucy, you do realize that even if you nod I can't see it, right?" Natsu asked, amused. Lucy realized her mistake and mumbled a quick "yes" into the phone. "Okay then, consider me your teacher," he sighed again. Lucy was about to say a bunch of thank yous into the phone, but an abrupt click stopped her from doing so. She threw the phone onto her couch and fell back into her bed.

Finally, she was able to fall asleep and dream.

* * *

Natsu couldn't go back to sleep after her call. Instead, he was wondering what the hell was he sucked into. Why did she ask him to teach her how to be normal? He was practically a stranger to her, and from what he had seen the girl didn't like people, much less ones she hadn't meet before. It wasn't even the request itself that bothered him, but the fact that he agreed. Its bad enough to have to entertain lusty, ignorant women at the House, but now he had to babysit another one? What the hell was wrong with him?

"You really have to stop talking to yourself, Natsu," a small voice piped up. Startled, Natsu fell off his bed with a little scream. In the room next to him Gajeel slammed the wall, telling him to stop making so much noise. Out of the shadows of the room stepped Natsu's partner, Happy. The small blue cat nonchalantly passed his floored (literally) friend and hopped onto the squeaky bed.

"I wasn't talking to myself!" Natsu whisper-yelled at his friend. The cat obviously didn't believe him but decided it was best to drop it and move on.

"If you make enough money, you can stop working in the House," Happy purred as his owner started to rub his ears. Natsu thought about it for a minute and figured that the cat was right; if this Lucy girl was going to help him bring in more money, then why wouldn't he say no? Her odd behavior was also amusing to watch, which was a plus. He laid back in bed and let the cat curl up against his back. Soon, Natsu's breathing became more even and he started to fall asleep.

He dreamed of a world where he could live in freedom.

* * *

**Oh, Natsu, how naïve you are. Is it really just for the money? Is it? Or does that beautiful blonde make you want to have 33 babies? :D**

**And so we get to the main plotline. Natsu and Lucy will hang out a lot for her lessons of normality and some interesting things will happen along the way with all of the other characters. I hope you guys don't hate me, if your expectations for how the story was going to go. There will be plenty of chapters to do with the House, though.  
**

**On a completely other note, I love how I'm slowly turning all of the characters into ninjas. First Jellal, then Bob, and now Happy. Maybe Elfman should be next, just for the sake of irony :)**

**And on yet ANOTHER unrelated note, did you know that I really like Gray and Juvia together? Keep that in mind, Gruvia fans, before you try to torch your computer. **

**-NeverMakesSense**


	5. What just happened?

**Thank you, my lovely readers, for the reviews, follows, and favorites. That's the only way I can find out how to make the story better! So go! Read and review! **

**Disclaimer: The ownership of Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me. **

* * *

For the second time in the past week Lucy woke up to the sound her annoying cell phone. She groaned as she stretched her arm out, patting around her bedside table to find the device. Her fingers just grazed it but weren't able to grab it. Her fingers pushed it off the table, the phone clattering to the floor. Cursing a few words, Lucy leaned down to try to reach for it, but instead she just fell off her bed with a loud THUMP.

"Ow ow owwww," she whimpered. The phone paused for a moment before starting the same blaring again, as if it was mocking her pain. Lucy glared at the device; sadly it didn't burst into flames like she wanted it to. She gave up and decided to answer it.

"Finally," Levy grumbled on the other end. She sounded worse than Lucy did, probably due to the insane amount of alcohol she consumed the night before. The drunker Levy had become the more frequently she reached out her glass for a refill, and no one was brave enough to stop her while in the happy drunk zone.

"What's up?" Lucy, still chilling on the hard floor of her apartment, asked curiously. Levy was similar to her in that she hated technology, so she seldom used her cellphone. Something really weird must have happened if she was calling so early with a hangover.

"Should I be worried that there is a large pile of money and clothes on my kitchen table?" She asked. In the background Lucy could hear her friend shuffle something and whispering numbers to herself. Probably counting her spoils from poker the night before. If Lucy could remember correctly, that involved about fifty dollars, two shirts and a pair of boxers. Who knew the metal studded joker had hearts on his underwear?

"You owned everyone at poker last night," Lucy stated absentmindedly, staring at the knots in the wood on her nightstand. She never noticed before, but they all formed a series of demented hearts, making her wonder if it was made that way or if it was a coincidence. She started to think that it was divine intervention trying to tell her something (which is impossible because there wasn't a boy on the planet that would voluntarily ask her out) when she realized that her friend was speaking again.

"Wish I could remember it. All that comes to me from last night was the urge to get some piercings," Lucy rolled her eyes at her friend's desire. Levy was always out for some adventure, though you really couldn't tell from her outside appearance; she was a small, fragile looking girl that worked as a public librarian and had two friends that hung around her, obsessing over her safety. Their faces if they found out Levy got something pierced would be hilarious.

"That would freak Jet and Droy out for sure," She offered, imagining the wicked smile she knew Levy was wearing. Lucy's eyes wondered to her clock and found the time to be ten in the morning. "Hey, Levy, weren't you supposed to be at work an hour ago?"

"...SHIT!" Levy screeched and hung up. Lucy laughed to her empty room and lazily got up. She realized that she had to get to work tomorrow and pick up more letters for her job as a columnist; she read letters that people wrote about anything, and if there were ones that she wanted to talk about she picked them out and wrote about them. It was her dream job to be writing and reading all day, even if half the time she was reading whiny complaints. Once in a while a really good letter slipped through and shone some light on her faith in humanity.

"Hello?!" Someone knocked on the door. Startled, Lucy crawled over to the barrier and silently stood up to look through the peep hole. Outside her door stood a white haired woman in a post uniform, tapping her foot and clenching a letter in her hand. She made an agitated face and raised her hand to knock on the door again just in time for Lucy to open it.

"Can I help you?" Lucy asked through her half opened door. The woman straightened and wiped the agitated look off her face, replacing it with a familiar looking, cheerful smile. The change in expression made Lucy nervous. How can a person change an expression in a matter of milliseconds ? Did people always play this lie, going through life never knowing how someone really thinks by the way they acted?

_ God, I am so over thinking this,_ Lucy thought to herself.

"Yes, I have a letter for Lucy Heart-" She held out a crisp white envelope to the blonde, who quickly grabbed it out of her hand.

"Yes, that's me," Lucy interrupted. A questioning look was shot her way but Lucy ignored it. That particular part of her name was a sore spot that brought up _many_ unpleasant memories she didn't feel like going through.

"Sign here," Lucy signed off on a clipboard and handed it back. The woman gave another sunny smile. Lucy gave another awkward response. It ended with another door closed on Lucy's chance of a social life. _Well, _ She thought to herself, _at least there is a good chance I will never see her again._ She turned her attention to the letter in her hand, flipping it over and over as she took it to her desk. The stamp had a familiar crest on it; two golden keys facing each other with a third golden bar connecting them to look like an H, with a red heart on the end of each of them. The letter was from "home" then.

"Well, only one place for this," Lucy grabbed the unopened letter and walked over to her fireplace. She struck a match and let the flames dance across the paper. She placed it into the pit and watched, mesmerized, as the fire consumed the fancy paper and reduced it to ashes within minutes. Her phone started to ring once again, making Lucy groan. Who could it be now?

* * *

Natsu woke up to a demon's bellow.

Well, okay, that sounds a bit misleading. The demon was Mirajane, a nickname that survived her days as a powerful wizard, and her bellow was more like her disciplinary scolding than an actual roar. Either way, it was one of the most scariest sounds Natsu had ever woken up to in his life.

"NATSU, GET IN HERE!" Mira yelled. Natsu rolled out of his bed onto the ground and crawled into the kitchen, stopping next to a bored Gajeel and a very confused looking Gray. He looked up at the woman in fear, wondering what he did to make her this angry.

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" She fumed. Natsu searched his memory for what she was referring to, but then he remembered what had happened last night. Mira was at the House, but she acted like she never seen the boys in her life. They looked at each other as the thought dawned on them. Maybe she was a better actor then they thought she was. And maybe they were really screwed.

"Sorry, Mira." Natsu apologized cautiously, his voice ending with a tilt to make it sound more like a question than an apology. "We didn't want to tell you because we were embarrassed."

"Why would _you_ be embarrassed? I think it's cute!" She hoisted him up and gave him a suffocating hug. Over her shoulder he gave his friends a what-the-hell-is-happening face, and they shrugged in response. _Okay, so she's happy we all work in a host/strip joint?_ He thought.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU HAD A GIRLFRIEND?!" She screeched in his ear, making him wince. He probably won't be able to hear out of that ear for a couple of weeks now. Her words registered finally in his head and he hopped out of her arms, embarrassed and mortified. He looked at his two friends for help. All he got was a shrug from Gray and a smirk from Gajeel.

"...What are you talking about?" He scooted away from Mira in case she tried to do something crazy. Her smile dropped quickly, and she stared at him in disappointment.

"You don't have a girlfriend?" She asked sadly. Natsu shook his head "no" and walked even further away from her. "But, Gajeel said you were up at 3 AM talking to a girl. No one can interrupt your sleep unless they're important!" Natsu shot a glare at the studded man, who returned a wild smile, and thought desperately for a way out with the least amount of questions.

"I'm just helping some girl get back to normal. She isn't a 'special someone'," Mira crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, not believing his story for a second. It wasn't her fault she couldn't believe it; it was rare for Natsu to do something other than work, eat, sleep and train, much less help a random girl out.

"I swear on my fire that the second I start dating someone, I will tell you," he added to make her happy. Strangely enough it worked, and with a happy smile Mira skipped out of the door. Everything was so still it was as if time stopped. Did she seriously come to their apartment just to ask him about his romantic life?

"Well, I'm off!" Gajeel booked it out of the apartment, the sound of this thudding footsteps echoing through the building. Natsu weighed the pros and cons of running after him while Gray stared in, still confused as to what just happened. Natsu remembered that he had something that needed to be done and so decided that revenge would have to wait.

"What just happened?" Gray asked. Natsu turned on him and cleared his face of all emotion.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. This is all a dream," he stated in a mysterious voice. Backing up slowly towards his room, Natsu waved his arms and slammed his door closed. He heard Gray break out of his daze and start knocking on his door for an explanation but ignored the loud banging. Instead, he took out his cellphone and scrolled through his recent calls for the number he was looking for.

"Hello?" Lucy's annoyed tone answered.

"Normal lessons commence at 1600," Natsu started in his best spy voice, "Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to become a normal person capable of human interaction."

"...what are you talking about?" She asked, confused. Natsu almost face palmed as he realized the girl had probably never seen a spy movie in her life. She really needed help; it would almost be a crime _not_ to help her.

"Never mind. Just meet me outside Jackson Library at four. Bye," He hung up without another word, looking at the clock to note that it was three, and opened his door. Outside it was deadly quiet, and as Natsu put his foot outside of his room a flash of pale skin appeared in the corner of his vision. Gray tackled him to the ground but Natsu was able to punch him in the gut and wriggle from his grasp. He sprinted out of the small apartment, never stopping until he couldn't hear his enemy's protests with his super hearing.

* * *

Lucy was left very confused. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. What do you do in a situation such as this? Get a present? What would she get a person she knew almost nothing about?

_ Maybe this wasn't such a good idea..._

* * *

Natsu fidgeted on the bench and looked at the time again. His watch had to be wrong; there was no way one minute had passed since the last time he had checked the time. It was 4:20 and there was no blonde in sight. He flipped his phone in case there was a missed call or something. There was nothing on the screen.

This didn't really hit him as a surprise, of course. Natsu was pretty sure the shy girl would be able to convince herself that this whole idea was a bad one. He knew that he was going to waste the half hour of his life waiting for someone who wouldn't show up. Once again he was presented with the thought that _maybe_ regular people aren't as cowardly or selfish as he thought, only to be proved horribly wrong. Even though he knew all of this, but there was a small disappointment inside of him that wouldn't go away.

"Time to go," he got up and started to walk away.

* * *

**I wouldn't put Lucy down so quickly if I were you, Natsu. You never know what might happen...**

**MUAH HA HA HA-**

**oh, ehem, sorry. Evil laugh got the better of me.**

**And, in case you were thinking, "Wow, she leaves us with a strange filler/cliffhanger that looks to have no point?" I am here to tell you that this chapter just set up some good things for later on. You just really need to look for them. Yeah...that's what I keep telling myself, at least.**

**Please review! I love hearing from you guys :)**


	6. And so it begins

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, for I am not awesome enough nor creative enough.**

* * *

Natsu had no idea what he was supposed to do in a situation like this. Just as he had gotten up to leave, a pair of hands shoved a hastily wrapped package into his hands. Surprised, Natsu looked up and found the blonde he had been anxiously waiting for. Her cheeks were red and puffed out, her sweater hanging off one shoulder and her bag was very close to spilling all of its contents onto the ground. She still wasn't able to speak, so she flicked her eyes back and forth between him and the package in his hands to indicate that he should open it. Cautiously, Natsu unwrapped the newspaper and found a pound of raw bacon in his hands.

Please, if you don't think that's strange, re-read that sentence.

And so his speechlessness is explained. Never in his life had anyone given him a present as randomly as this, never the less give him BACON of all things. Did this girl miss gift giving class or something? Oh, wait, never mind...

"Thanks?" Natsu's voice sounded unsure, but Lucy didn't pick up on it. The girl smiled tentatively at him, straightening up and fixing her clothes. Her expectant gaze made him realize one key thing Natsu had forgotten to think of. He had no clue what they should do in this "lesson".

"What is the first lesson, Sensei?" She asked him seriously. A couple that was passing by turned and stared at him for a moment, making Natsu laugh nervously so they would walk away. The two looked at each other and shrugged, walking away and giggling about something stupid. He breathed a sigh of relief before glaring at the clueless Lucy.

"Don't call me Sensei," he bit out.

"Okay, Natsu-sama."

"No."

"Master Natsu?"

"Rejected."

"Doctor Normal?"

"And we come to lesson one: Don't call people weird names," He looked to another couple who had been listening to this little naming fiesta with facial expressions consisting of worry and amusement. Natsu started laughing again awkwardly, jabbing the blond next to him with his elbow as a signal to do the same. Lucy just stared at him in confusion and annoyance as she rubbed her ribs, and the couple quickly walked off to get as far away from him as possible.

"Lesson two: When one starts laughing randomly, you laugh as well," Natsu tucked the package of bacon into his bag and started to walk off. Lucy scurried after him, staying a little bit behind him, as if she was trying to hide from the oncoming traffic on the streets.

Well, this was going to be interesting.

* * *

Levy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. She had been peacefully working out her hangover, only screaming once at some stupid teenagers to shut up, when it happened. A hulking mass of muscle, black hair and silver piercings walked through the library's doors and into the stacks. She would've been fine with his presence if he hadn't turned out to be a book switcher. Yes, this man was from the scum of the earth, one who took the neat, ORGANIZED literature and placed it in an entirely new location. Every time he did so he would walk back to the table and Levy would be forced to get up and fix it.

Levy did not like exercise. Exercise was for non-book readers.

He got up with the most recent victim and Levy snapped. She marched over to the studded man, grabbed the stud in his ear, and dragged him out of the library.

"What is wrong with you?" She snapped at the scumbag, who was staring at her in disbelief. She clapped her hands in his face to get his attention. "Hey, did those piercings drill into your head or something?"

"Sorry, you looked familiar," he grumbled.

"Well, that's nice and all, but I have a problem. You see, books are placed in _certain_ spots for a reason," She poked him in the chest and tried to contain her scream of pain from crushing her finger in the process, "And if I see you put one more out of place, I swear to the Book God I will find out where you live and fill your room with encyclopedias," She turned sharply on her heel and skipped back into the library after her threat, leaving a dazed iron face behind wondering what just happened. Inside the library, Levy was left to wonder over the slight feeling she had got from him. Now that she thought about it, there was something familiar about those piercings...

* * *

Lucy was having a hard time trying to keep up with what Natsu was doing. They were in a small internet cafe, trying to channel the Google God while munching on some cookies, and Natsu was muttering words to himself as he started at the computer screen in front of him. The small space was making Lucy uncomfortable and the dark walls were starting to close in on her. Though there weren't that many people sitting in the room but there were still enough to make her sweat. Natsu nodded his head one final time and clicked his way off of the search engine. He swung around and looked her up and down for a few minutes, circling her like a predator scopes out his prey. She scrunched up a bit out of habit, trying to look as small and insignificant as possible.

"Okay then. According to Wikipedia, we need to first establish what it is that makes you not normal. Make a list," he handed her a napkin and pen. Lucy looked down, unsure of what to write. She had never really been able to interact with kids her age; the last time she was able to play with another child was before her mother died, when she was eight. As a result of her solitude, she was very limited in the whole human interaction department, except for her friends, of course (which were really a miracle, because why they choose to befriend her was a total mystery to Lucy), and strangely enough, Natsu.

_ It's probably the hair. _She thought to herself. His hair was a soft, pretty, rosy pink that was spiked all over his head. The color itself was so feminine it made it hard to not trust the man, even if he was a stranger. Can pink even be a dangerous color? You don't hear about criminals or scary creatures with pink on them. Unless they were stained with blood, then pink was an acceptable color. But, you never hear anyone scream, "LOOK OUT FOR THE MAN IN THE PINK HAIR" in movies or books.

_Back to the task, Lucy,_ She snapped herself back into focus. Her attention skills were probably something to be desired. Let's see, what else...

"Talking to yourself should also go on the list," Natsu broke through her thoughts. She blushed furiously and looked down to the short list she had to far. It didn't really seem complete, but it was a pretty good start:

Claustrophobia

Attention Span

People Skills

Talking to self

She slid the napkin back to Natsu, his eyes quickly skimming the list. He fiddled with the scarf that was around his neck, which Lucy hadn't noticed before and which he was not wearing when she first met him. It was white and checkered as if to look like scales. It was a curious scarf, one that looked as out of place as his hair did. Strangely enough, it actually worked.

"People skills and your fears first. You're more shy than I originally thought was possible," He took another cookie from the plate and gave her another piercing stare. Lucy looked away from his eyes and focused on her hands that were neatly folded in her lap.

"People are just so...peopley," she sighed, looking up to find Natsu hacking on his cookie. She watched, slightly amused, as he slapped his chest and tried not to die. The other customers in the cafe looked up curiously, and a couple others got up as if they were going to help. They didn't, of course; from what Lucy had observed in her life, people were usually selfish. However, when she brought her friends into consideration, she knew it wasn't true. Nice people like her friends could never be selfish. She turned her attention back to her teacher just as he finally stopped dying.

"Thanks for helping me," he snapped sarcastically.

"I didn't really help you, but you're welcome," she said, becoming even more confused when she saw Natsu face palm.

"You can't even use- never mind, not important. So, your grand reason for not trusting people is because they are too peopley?" He was almost shrieking by the end of his question.

"Yeah. They lie all the time, and usually they're selfish," she watched Natsu's mouth gape like a fish out of water. He seemed to be at a total loss of words, and she was almost smug that she was able to stump him like this. Heh, who's the weird one now, huh Natsu?

"Well, you still need to trust people mo-." Lucy heard a crack of thunder sound outside, cutting off the end of his scolding. The sky closed up and dumped water on all of the unfortunate bystanders that were still milling around outside. It was like the sky was trying to purge all of its anger and sadness by drowning everyone else in it. This type of emotional rainfall was setting off her Juvia-is-going-through-an-emotional-crisis senses.

"Weird, it wasn't supposed to rain today," Natsu muttered. Of course it wasn't going to rain today, Juvia's control over water was just going out of whack.

"I have to go," Lucy gathered her bags and took out her wallet all businesslike. "What do I owe you?"

"The bacon will do for this one," Natsu patted his package. Lucy nodded and scurried out of the cafe into the downpour, glad to be rid of the suffocating space. She started in the direction of her friend's apartment, ducking momentarily under an awning to send a text to gather the others. From the intensity of the rain, Juvia and Lyon must have had a really bad fight, and Lucy was going to need all of the back up she could get.

* * *

Juvia was finally having a relaxing day, probably the first one ever since Lyon proposed to her. Planning the wedding was like watching anime: you love it so much, but it gets so addicting that it takes over your life and if something bad happens its like the whole world is ending. She was sitting in her bathtub with bubbles and candles galore, so at one with the water that she almost literally became at one with the water. She heard the front door of her and Lyon's apartment slam open, disturbing the long deserved peace she had finally achieved. She heard her fiance's footsteps stomp towards the bathroom and he swung the door open.

"Hey," He looked slightly panicked that Juvia was home, which was weird considering she had told him the day before that she was taking the day off. He backed out of the bathroom and stomped out to the kitchen. Juvia, annoyed at all of the extra noise, gave up on her bath, getting up and going to their room. She heard Lyon open and close the main door with a soft sigh. Walking out of the room, Juvia snuck up behind him and gave him a hug. He jumped a bit and moved out of her arms.

"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly. Lyon shook his head and smiled, but Juvia had seen enough of his fake smiles to know that thing one was indeed made of plastic. She tried to get closer to him, but he took another step back.

"Nothing is wrong," he pushed passed her into their small kitchen. She could have sworn that she smelt woman's perfume on him, but pushed that thought out of her mind since she had just put some on herself after her bath.

"Juvia thinks that Lyon has a problem," She followed him into the kitchen.

"It's 'I think', Juvia," he snapped at her.

"Juvia is confused," She had always talked in third person, and he has never had a problem with it before. In fact, that was one of the reasons he loved her, or so he said.

"You need to stop talking in third person."

"Lyon has never had a problem with Juvia's speech before."

"Well, I think its starting to be annoying!" He yelled at her, making Juvia take another step back. Lyon has never yelled at her before, not like this.

"Why is Lyon yelling at Juvia?" She cried hysterically. Feeling a familiar tug in her gut, she turned to look out the window just in time to see a bunch of water start pouring itself on the disgruntled pedestrians outside.

"God, Juvia, calm down. You're making it rain again," Lyon pushed pass Juvia, heading towards his jacket and umbrella. Rain was pouring out like there was no tomorrow. Maybe there won't be a tomorrow; there was enough water to drown the town. Juvia's emotions were starting to get to her, her sadness and anger was making her vision turn red. This was the most random outburst she had ever seen from Lyon, but instead of trying to find out what was wrong she just let her emotions run rampant.

"Calm down? Why can't Lyon calm down!?" She threw a pillow from the couch at his retreating figure. Lyon turned around with crazed, stressed eyes.

"Bye, Juvia," He snapped, shutting the door in her face. Juvia screeched, making the rain storm even harder and a crack of thunder sound with a loud BOOM. She stalked back to the bathroom and plunked down into the cold water, her clothes still on. Her tears were pouring down her face like the rain that was pouring down from the sky. Soon enough she made herself melt into the water so all that was left was a couple of bubbles and her clothes.

* * *

Natsu stared at the door, weighing his options. Go after the girl, which was a good thing to do, or stay in the cafe and "borrow" their grill so he can cook his bacon. Bacon or Lucy or bacon or Lucy or-

Mira's demon face flashed across his eyes. If she found out that he let a girl walk through a downpour she would probably skin him alive. Natsu preferred his skin to stay attached to his body, thank you. Sighing, he grabbed his coat and bacon and raced after the curious blonde.

He wanted to talk more with her anyway; the opinion she had about people closely resembled his own, and when he started to scold her at the end he felt like a hypocrite. Never before in his life had he met someone who had challenged his opinion like this before. Natsu was a lot of things, but being wrong about something was one thing he hated the most.

He had just caught Lucy's retreating figure in sight when someone stepped in front of him. A familiar pink dress and pure white hair caught his eye. His jacket dropped from his hands as he took in the sight of his childhood friend.

"Lisanna?" Natsu whispered. The girl in front of him smiled.

"Hey, Natsu. It's been a while, huh?"

* * *

**Hey guys, sorry it has been so long since I last updated. School kinda took over and it was just a long, epic battle between me and the AP world history test. It sucked. I pray I got a 3 or higher, but every freaking question began with a paragraph! ALL 70 OF THEM! IN 55 MINUTES! (If you read this and you are in AP world as well, I connect with your pain) **

**But, I guess you guys don't really care, especially since I'm such a bad writer :/  
**

**However, though my writing is sucky, I still hope you liked today's chapter! Please review!**

**And yeah, I realize that Lyon loves Juvia so much (bleh, not a fan), but he is under a lot of stress. You'll see why later ;)**

**-NeverMakesSense**


	7. Trust me

**Hey guys, I'm so sorry I haven't updated for a while. I had so many finals to take. In fact, even though I suffered through the hell that was the AP world exam I still had to take two finals in my global class anyway. So, yeah, I was dying and I haven't been able to really look at this story for a while. **

**Plus, a lack of idea's for how this chapter would proceed also factored in as well. **

**Anyway, to make up for it I made this one extra long! And I like this chapter, so yay! Enjoy, my lovelies!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, this fanfiction would have no point. **

* * *

Lucy stood outside Juvia's apartment. She was able to feel the depressing air surrounding the door, and she knew that once she went in there was a very good chance that she will end up drowning in Juvia's tears. Or the amount of emotion in the room was going to suffocate her. _She's my friend, she's my friend, she's my friend..._ Lucy gulped and reached for the doorknob, surprised to find the door unlocked.

"Juvia?" Lucy opened the door and tiptoed into the apartment, praying that Lyon wasn't there. If he was, she'd be walking into a battlefield that she would never escape. When the couple had a fight, they tended to throw very sharp projectiles that always headed straight for Lucy's face. Plus, she never really was comfortable with Lyon. Maybe it was his slanted eyes or his too perfect smile, but she just couldn't seem to trust him. Or maybe it was just her always lovely trust issues.

"Oh, Juvia!" Lucy sung as she walked towards the sound of crying, which seemed to come from the bathroom. Nudging the door open with her toe, she peered into the eye of the storm. There were candles tipped over, with water and soap were splashed everywhere. However, there was no Juvia in sight. The crying stopped, the eerie silence washed over Lucy, giving her bad memories a chance to flash in her mind. Lucy walked over to the bathtub and sat on its edge, peering into the water to see if she could find the outline of her friend's form.

"So, strange weather we're having," she started awkwardly. It was her special way for asking Juvia why she was upset; usually it worked, since the woman gets her emotions out _very_ easily, but this time Lucy was met with silence. "Come on, Juvia, tell me what's wrong," she poked at the water, praying her friend would respond and at least take her normal form again.

"Lucy?" Juvia's faraway voice called. Excited at the response, Lucy leaned over the tub to hear her better. "Why is Lucy talking to Juvia's bathtub?"

"I'm talking to you- wait, what?" Lucy whipped around to see her friend giving her a strange look in the doorway. Behind her Mirajane was gracing her with the same look. "I thought you were- never mind." Lucy followed them out of the bathroom to Juvia's kitchen table.

"Juvia had a fight with Lyon again. It was nothing, Juvia needs to stop being so emotional," the water woman launched into a blow by blow of the fight. Lucy became more confused as she listened. It sounded like it was all Lyon's fault, but her friends went down to the bare meaning of the words and somehow came up with the conclusion that "oh, he does care!" and "Juvia must apologize right away!" From past experience the blonde knew to keep her mouth shut about her thoughts, since she had probably screwed up more relationships with her advice. Still, the feeling that there was something wrong going on. Before she could voice her suspicions, Juvia was on her cellphone and Mira was pulling her on the apartment. As the girls passed through the doorway, Lucy smelled the most interesting floral perfume.

"Juvia, did you get any perfume lately?" Lucy asked.

Juvia shook her head and went back to her phone call.

* * *

"How are you, Lisanna?" Natsu asked, breathless. The girl smiled and took a step towards him, but the smile dropped as he took a step back.

"Good. You?"

"Fine," he edged farther away.

"Natsu, you can stop running from me," she sighed, referring to the fact that ever since Lisanna had come back, Natsu stayed away from her. He was getting better, but the distance was still there. Natsu still saw her bloody "murder" scene flash before his eyes when he went to sleep, and he still blamed himself for the pain her loss had caused. If he had been a little bit stronger, or a little bit faster...

God, he was such a depressing person.

"I know," his smile was so fake that Barbie would have called it plastic.

"I was going to go eat, you want to come?" She asked hopefully.

"Sorry, I can't," Natsu felt like a monster for saying no to his childhood friend, but it wasn't like he was lying. While with his interesting blonde student, Natsu didn't notice the time ticking away. It was almost time for him to go to his job, and if he was late Jellal would skin him alive. The tattooed man was weird like that. God forbid you show up late, but randomly disappearing is perfectly acceptable. Natsu tried to ignore the disappointed look on her face and the sinking feeling that he was a jackass.

"Oh, okay. Bye then, Natsu," she walked away.

"Bye, Lisanna," he whispered.

* * *

Natsu tapped his foot in tune with the music thrumming through the room as he watched his coworkers though the smoke that filled the cramped space. The ice head was making sculptures for his guests and had seemed to have lost his shirt and vest in the process. Gajeel was wiping the floor at poker. Elfman was doing push ups. The trio of Hibiki, Ren and Eve were making the air around them sparkle as they surrounded their confused employers. Everything was proceeding as it normally did.

What he would do for an interruption. Seriously, anything would be appreciated.

"Natsuuuuu," whined one of his regulars, tugging on his shirt to get his attention. _Damn you, that is NOT when I meant,_ he thought angrily before shooting her a fake smile. "You weren't listening to me at all, were you?" She pouted like a bratty five year old. If, you know, a bratty five year old had giant, plastic boobs and stuff. Natsu usually didn't even pay attention to things like that, his friends even joked that he still hadn't hit puberty yet, but when its shoved in his face like this idiot usually did he couldn't help but notice.

"Sorry, you had me in a trance," he lied smoothly, trying not to barf at his line. If there was anything that was entrancing on this woman it was her hair; it was definitely not natural to have to spiky puff balls on either side of your head. Her hair was defying gravity. However, she didn't notice the fakeness at all, blushing and giggling like an idiot.

"Well, anyway-hey!" Natsu caught his guest before she could fall to the floor, however funny it would be. The pusher, a wicked looking woman with light brown hair and glasses, turned around to scoff for half a second before continuing her journey to the other side of the room. Natsu watched her, noting that she kept shooting quick glances around the room, as if she was looking for someone. She caught sight of something, and started moving towards her target-

"You caught me," the woman in his arms breathed. Natsu had forgotten that she was there, and he almost dropped her in surprise. Maybe she noticed his grasp on her slack, but maybe she didn't. Either way, she pressed herself as close as physically possible to him like a cling on.

"Of course I caught you. You can trust me," he winked.

_Trust. Falling. Wait a sec...Lucy..._

"Natsu!" Two more familiar looking faces approached him. They overwhelmed him; a group of shiny jewelry and big hair and slutty dresses pressing in on all sides. For a moment he couldn't even breathe due to the smell and smoke clogging his nose.

"Come on, let's have some fun," one of them whispered into his ear, smiling wickedly the whole time. He mirrored the smile, but when she was looking he shot a desperate glance around for some backup. Sadly, there were no fellow hearts nearby to help him out.

Lucy was going to have to wait.

* * *

It was very late at night when he called her. Or maybe it was really early in the morning. Whatever time it was, Lucy had finally drifted off into the in between, not exactly sleeping per say but not necessarily awake either. Almost like the Twilight zone...but not. She was about to jump into a pool of bacon when the worst possible noise broke through her delicious paradise.

Her phone. Again. Just like fainting in Dante's Inferno, her phone just liked to speed her life along. Lucy fumbled for the device and flipped it open. What she heard next were the scariest words she had ever heard in her life.

"Do you trust me?" Natsu asked. She paused for a second, but it was more for dramatics than her actually thinking about it.

"No, not really," she answered bluntly.

"Great, then I want you to meet me outside the library ASAP," he ordered. Lucy flipped onto her stomach and started at her clock in disbelief. He apparently wanted her to get up at 3 AM and walk to the library. When it was cold and dark and dangerous. Did she forget to mention it was 3 in the morning?

"Fine," she grumbled, grabbing her sweats off of the floor. It was probably better to just do what her teacher wanted then try to argue with him. He seemed like one of those people that just drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

_What am I doing?_ Lucy wondered as she ran out the door. She already knew the answer to that though. No matter how insane the shy, safe playing Lucy thought this idea was, there was another Lucy in chains yelling at her to go. It was about time she had some excitement in her life.

"Natsu?"

"Yeah?"

"It's cold."

"Is it?"

"It is."

"Sucks to be you, huh?"

"Meanie."

"Did you seriously stick your tongue out at me?"

"Yup," Lucy smiled at the easy banter they had. They had been walking through the alleyways of the town, heading towards the waterfront that the river passing Lucy's apartment lead to. It seriously was cold though, that Lucy wasn't lying about, but talking kept her mind off of it.

"And here we are," Natsu gestured to the water in front of them. There was a rock wall that was raised a couple of feet from ground level to keep drunks from walking straight off, though the stones looked loose and the top seemed slippery. Before Lucy could even comprehend it, her teacher grabbed her by the waist and set her on the ledge.

"Natsu! I'm going to fall!" She screeched. Wow, this was a form of complaining. She hadn't really done that since...um, when was the last time she complained...?

"Save the complaining for another lesson," he stepped back, "and yeah, that's the point. Today we're practicing the art of trust falls," Natsu held out his arms. As if she was going to willingly fall back and trust a stranger. No thank you, Lucy wasn't that crazy and the ground looked very hard and painful.

"No. Nononononnononononono," she wobbled on the edge. "Let me down!" She was referring to the fact that Natsu the blockhead was blocking her every move to hop off the edge. Jerk.

"C'mon, you trusted me so far!"

"This is different!"

"Just pretend I'm a piece of bacon or something!" He yelled exasperated. Lucy opened her mouth to lecture him on his misuse of the powers of bacon, but someone else cut her off.

"What kind of foreplay is that?" Yelled a deep, mysterious voice. The two adults whipped their heads to the dark alleyway next to them. The abyss was pitch black, but the sound of footsteps echoed through the buildings. Slowly a large group of thugs stepped out, parting to allow the leader of the group through. He didn't really look threatening, more like he stepped out of a costume store.

"A monkey?" Lucy giggled. Laughing along with her, Natsu grabbed her off the ledge and set her back down on the ground. The so called 'leader' had a squished face and disproportionate ears that made him look hysterically ape-like. Couple that with his rendition of what the man apparently thought were gangster clothes and you got the mental picture of what he looked like. You may now take a moment to laugh along with Natsu and Lucy.

The leader looked at them angrily and snapped his fingers. In an instant the group behind him responded, moving to surround the laughing pair. Lucy's laughter cut off abruptly, but next her her Natsu grinned wildly, waving his hands in the universal come-at-me-bro gesture. The gang swarmed them like a hive of angry bees, converging on the pink haired maniac in a second. Lucy looked on in silent terror as he disappeared from sight.

_Oh, Natsu, you were a good f-WHAT? _Lucy's thoughts became a scream as she saw flames rising from the middle of the mosh pit. The fire lashed out at everyone like a whip, revealing a perfectly fine Natsu laughing maniacally in the middle of the chaos. Half of the members started jumping into the river to put out the fire that caught onto their clothes. The other half parted to let a single member through.

"Come on, all your asses burn the same!" Natsu threw a fireball at the cloaked figure. The man raised his hand and the fireball stopped in midair. It floated there for a second before it started to change. The swirling reds and oranges drained from the flames, leaving a clear mass in it's place. A menacing chuckle swept across the harbor and the mass was launched right at Natsu's chest. Lucy's breath hitched as she watched him stumble back a bit. He looked down, bewildered, at his hands, as if he was willing something to happen. The remaining gang members started to laugh boisterously.

"Not so hot without your flames, huh?" The leader yelled as he set a large weapon on his shoulder. Lucy's eyes widened. He was going to shoot them. She was going to die. Natsu was going to die...

"RUN!" Natsu grabbed her hand and they tore down the sidewalk, barley managing to avoid the shots pointed in their direction. They made a sharp turn into an alley to try to shake them off but the drunken calls were closing in. Up ahead a metal staircase lead to the roof of the abandoned buildings they were running between, and the two scrambled up the stairs faster than what would've been thought possible. Luckily the roofs were pretty close together, because it wasn't long before Lucy could hear the mass following them up the stairs. They started jumping the rooftops, dodging magic bullets along the way. The system was working well until Natsu made them avoid a patch on the roof. He jumped to the ground, using the wedge between the buildings to slow his descent. Lucy, unable to follow his movements, skidded to a stop at the edge.

"Natsu!" She yelled frantically. The group of men were closing in behind her, and there was no other way to get off the roof. It was either be captured or jump. Either way she was probably going to die. How the hell did she get herself into this kind of situation? A couple of hours ago she was in her warm bed! This is why she didn't like to socialize with people! This is why she chained that wild part of her away!

"Jump!" He yelled. The blonde looked behind her; the gang was on the roof next to the one she was standing on. She was out of time. Hopefully she wasn't out of luck too.

She closed her eyes.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Jump.

The air whooshed through her hair and for a split second she felt the absolute freedom she had always been craving. It was scary and thrilling at the same time. Then, she landed on something warm. Opening her eyes, Lucy came face to face with the toothy smile of a certain pink haired someone.

"See Luce?" He grinned. "You just have to trust me," Natsu set Lucy on her feet and they both watched as the other half of the gang that was chasing them fell through the roof of the building they were on. "The structure was weak there. I could feel it when we were running," he supplied as she stared at the scene open mouthed.

"Wow, you're smart," she said, amazed. Natsu grinned foolishly before he realized what she said.

"Hey!" He yelled. Lucy grinned and started running back towards her apartment while laughing all the way, Natsu yelling as he chased her.

_Maybe trusting someone isn't that bad._

* * *

"Anything new to report?" Asked a brown haired beauty. She shifted her glasses, which glinted in the little light the room provided, and stared at her coworker. Well, technically, her ex-coworker.

"No, nothing yet," Fried Justine reported. The supposed 'fairy queen' faked a laugh as a bunch of eyes drifted her way, suspicious of the serious air surrounding the duo. Th eyes drifted away and they were able to continue their conversation.

"Good. I'll go tell _him,_" she covered her mouth as a cackle bubbled out of her throat.

Everything was going to plan.

* * *

**God, if I had a dime for every hint I dropped for what I want to do with this story I would be able to buy Fairy Tail off of Hiro Mashima. Seriously. I really hope I'll be able to fit in all of the scandalous things I have planned here ;)**

**Okay, so, here's the thing. I need some ideas of what to do here. Half the time it takes to write each chapter is just thinking of what to do, so help from you guys, the lovely people who take time out of their lives to read my unworthy story, is very appreciated. **

**Plus, I have no friends. When I get a review from you I can pretend like I have some. **

**Also! Do you think that this is progressing slowly? **

**-NeverMakesSense**


	8. Clothes and Games

**Thank you all, for the wonderous reviews, favorites, and follows! I also received some brilliant suggestions for this story (Special thanks to **Professor Nebilium**, who gave me the idea for Gajeel and Levy! ) , and I'm really excited for what is to come. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!**

**I was spurred to update today by the newest chapter of Fairy Tail. It was so sweet. HOWEVER, IS IT JUST ME OR IS ANYONE SUSPICIOUS THAT SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN?! I had the impression that Lucy or Natsu was going to die or disappear in this arc, and this seemingly peaceful ending leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I hope I'm wrong...**

**Whatever. It was still a happy Fairy Tail Friday!**

**Disclaimer: Until I obtain the secret recipe for Friday's brownies and take over the world, I don't own Fairy Tail. All in good time my friends. All in good time...**

* * *

_He's here again, _Levy's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she watched the iron head from across the room. Every day since she had seen his first atrocious acts of book switching the man had come back to make her life a living hell. Take a sip of coffee, he was putting a fiction book in the reference section. Help a kid with their homework and he was trying to eat the iron decorations in the room (Levy would like to take this moment and reflect on the fact that the man was trying to eat metal. Dear god, what was he?). If she relaxed for one more second he was probably going to set off a bomb or something.

The man in question finally felt the heat of her gaze, making him turn around and smirk at her. Something inside the spunky librarian broke. She marched over to the metal studded demon and grabbed him by the shirt collar. He yawned in her face, not knowing how dangerous Levy could be when she was angry.

"I swear to the Book Gods," she hissed, "I will pay you back for these visits. Just you wait, Metal Face," she let go of Gajeel's shirt and walked away, avoiding every strange look thrown in her direction and leaving a surprised dragon slayer behind.

* * *

"Natsu," Lucy groaned, "please, stop."

"I can't stop. I have to do this for you," he grunted.

"But...It's my first time," she said nervously.

"Just trust me-OH MY GOD, THEY'RE HUGE."

"Stop staring!"

"Excuse me?" A store employee called out, "What you're about to do in there isn't sanitary!"

Well, one would assume that things are about to get steamy in here. Let's go back and see how this happened, hm?

Lucy woke up to the annoying sound of birds chirping. She glared out the open window and the birds, feeling her evil aura, stopped their noise and flew away. She wiggled back under her covers to begin to doze off again to the tune of her arguing landlords. Five minutes later a random thought made her bolt upright in bed.

"WHY IS THE WINDOW OPEN?!" She screamed in terror. The fight between her landlords below paused for a second but then resumed. She did a strange tumble out of bed, like a ninja that failed out of ninja collage, and snapped her gaze around the room. Nothing looked out of place from her cursory glance, but as she went for another scan a person walked out of her kitchen.

"'Sup?" Natsu asked. Lucy screamed in terror, more from what she was wearing then the fact that her teacher just reached a new level of creepy. Since she had gotten back home so late last night, Lucy had just slept in her underwear and t-shirt instead of putting on legitimate pajamas. This was probably the most skin anyone had ever seen since the summer of when she was ten. "Calm down Luce," Natsu rolled his eyes and handed her a cup of coffee.

"Calm down? YOU JUST BROKE INTO MY HOUSE, HELPED YOUSELF TO MY COFFEE, AND YOU WANT ME TO-oh, this is pretty good," the beverage was like heaven in her mouth, almost as good as bacon, but bacon can not be overthrown by any edible substance. From behind his back Natsu produced a plate of bacon, eggs and toast, shoving the food in her mouth to make sure that she stayed quiet. Sadly, his plan worked perfectly.

"I didn't break into your house either; It's not my fault you leave your window unlocked," he shrugged, as if it was totally normal for people to waltz into a house through the window. Did Lucy mention the fact that she lives on the second floor of her house?

"Okay, that fact aside...what are you doing here?" She decided that it was best not knowing the maneuvers it took to enter her apartment.

"I'm taking you shopping. It kills my sense of masculinity to say this, but," Natsu put one hand on his hip and snapped his fingers, saying, "Girl, you need a new wardrobe," in a horrible rendition of a valley girl's voice. Lucy considered her closet as he crawled into the corner to 'recover his lost manliness', but she knew he was crying a little bit from doing the voice.

"My clothes are fine!" She decided.

"No, you need to stop bundling yourself up like a marshmallow."

"...Are you calling me fat?"

"What? No!"

"You called me a marshmallow!"

"I'm not having this conversation. Put some clothes on and lets go," Natsu gave her a look that said follow-my-orders-or-else, so Lucy just decided to suck it up and listen to her teacher. She looked down and realized that the whole time she was talking to him, she was still in her underwear.

In the next moment, all that could be heard from her apartment was the sound of screaming and a loud slap.

"You know, for a shy girl you can really pack a punch," Natsu complained, rubbing his still red cheek. Lucy rolled her eyes and entered their destination: Marvel's Clothing Emporium.

"I didn't punch you, I slapped you," Lucy reminded him. It was Natsu's turn to roll his eyes as he followed the blonde into the store. Lucy started to head off into the section she usually shops in, where there clothes covered more of her body and she could talk to some nice older ladies-

"Where do you think you're going?" Natsu grabbed onto the back of her collar and started to drag her to the other side of the store.

"But I always shop over there!" She complained.

"And the whole point of this lesson is for you to stop dressing like an old woman!" He reminded her. Lucy pouted at his logic and allowed the boy to drag her deeper into the store, where the shirts became more sleeveless and the skirts became shorter (and at times nonexistent). Finally, they came to a stop near some dressing rooms. "Okay, Lucy, go find some stuff!" He let her go and watched as she timidly wondered through the clothes.

_Oh my gods, these show way more skin then I'm used to, _she thought, _there is no way-oh, that's cute. _She picked up a pink tank top and some shorts. A few feet away she spotted a nice white top with the heart kreuz symbol on it with a black skirt. In no time she had a giant pile of clothes at her disposal and was ready to go into the dressing room to try them on.

The second she put on the first outfit, she knew that it was a bad idea.

"What is taking so long?" Natsu wondered aloud. He was sitting outside Lucy's dressing room, tapping his foot in a steady beat. Before he was able to hear the rustling of clothes but now it was silent. What could be wrong?

"Natsu, this is too embarrassing," Lucy called out.

"It's probably fine!" He walked over to Lucy's door, rolling his eyes at her cowardice. Seriously, the girl had to learn how to lighten up a little.

"It doesn't even look like I put it on right," she sounded confused. He wondered how a girl was able to be unsure about clothes; wasn't that their area of specialty? Mira had always said that they were the fashion gurus of the universe, but she probably said that so Natsu would stop complaining about the outfits she forced onto him.

"Lemme see," he grabbed the door handle and jiggled it.

"No! I'm not dressed yet!" She yelled, horrified. Some fellow shoppers looked over and stared at Natsu. He laughed awkwardly and started talking about girlfriends and how they take so long to pick out a single outfit. When their interest was lost he turned back to the door and continued his mission.

"Lucy, do you know how many times I've seen someone's boobs at my job? You're nothing special," he tapped his foot as Lucy considered his words. Then there was a soft snick of the lock and Natsu was pulled into the cramped space. He turned around and, sadly, immediately saw the problem.

"You're wearing a tube top like a skirt," he pointed out. Embarrassed, Lucy started to pull the top up her body, which led to the main problem that led to their situation. The thing is, he noticed that Lucy had some trouble pulling the top over her...upper body, let's say. After a couple seconds of pointless tugging, he decided to step in, partly because he wanted to help, partly because he was too lazy to go out to find another size for the top if she asked him too. So, we can say that the whole accident was based on childish laziness. Way to go, Natsu, way to go.

"Natsu," Lucy groaned, "please, stop," she tried to slap his hands away from the top and the rest of her upper body, but the boy was not backing down, though there was a very small part of him that was blushing at their close proximity. It was a very tiny part of himself, so he chose to ignore it.

"I can't stop. I have to do this for you," he grunted, refusing to be defeated by a tube top. Plus, he _really _ didn't feel like searching the store for the next size. This shirt was going to fit dammit!

"But...It's my first time," she said nervously. Natsu shot her a wierded out look and she shrugged, mumbling something about how it fit the mood somehow. He chose to not think about what that meant and turned back to the mission at hand. Girls. They are like a puzzle that you lost a piece to; you think that you have them figured out but instead they end up making things more confusing.

"Just trust me-OH MY GOD, THEY'RE HUGE," he was both complaining and amazed at the size of her boobs. Though they were causing him trouble, they were so-

"Stop staring!" She slapped his face, the force of the hit making him bang into the wall. With a final tug she was able to get the shirt on as well as slip on a skirt so she wasn't half naked. Annoyed, Natsu was about to yell at her to stop hitting him when he heard it.

"Excuse me?" A store employee called out, "What you're about to do in there isn't sanitary!" The two adults froze and looked at each other. Finally, they realized that the entire time they were yelling, and anyone outside the room would've been able to hear them easily. Natsu opened the door to explain, but his luck still sucked and he ended up tripping on the pile of clothes in the room. He fell out and took Lucy with him.

"Suprisingly enough, this is not what it looks like- Wait, Wendy?!" Natsu looked up at the upside down employee and noticed it was his friend Wendy Marvel. _This is great!_ He yelled in his mind, _I can explain everything to her, and everything will be fine. _

"I didn't know you were like this Natsu-san," she blushed, her face turning the same color as a tomato. Natsu realized the position he was sitting in; Lucy was sitting on top of him with her legs on either side of his hips. Add in the conversation in the dressing room and you have a nice recipe for disaster and misunderstanding. The blonde seemed to realize it at the same time he did, because she suddenly scrambled off of him and dove back into the dressing room.

"Traitor," he mumbled. Wendy was still overheating from her blush and couldn't snap out of it until Lucy came back out with her pile of clothes.

"Can I buy these?" She asked warily as an attempt to diffuse the awkward feelings drifting in the air. Wendy turned around and smiled at her, leading them to the register and ringing up her clothes. While Lucy was paying the manager of the store, who was drawn to the scandalized calls around the dressing room, scolded them harshly. The man dragged the two out and plopped them onto the sidewalk, and from behind him Natsu could see Wendy sending him apologetic glances.

"Does everything you do get you in trouble?" Lucy asked, annoyed.

"No- wait, yeah. Yeah, basically," he gave her a wicked smile. She hit his shoulder and Natsu pushed her in retaliation, the first move in a mini pushing war that was only interrupted by two friends walking by.

"Did you hear Monica? That dark guild-" A woman whispered to her friend. Natsu was able to pick it up with his trusty superhuman hearing, and by the way Lucy was holding her head she was able to pick it up as well.

"Not a guild, a gang," Her friend corrected her.

"Whatever. The gang was found beaten up in the old part of town! Who was powerful enough to do it?" Lucy looked at Natsu and wiggled her eyebrows. He smiled back and continued to listen.

"I don't know. I hear a lot of them were beaten to death...," the two women walked out of earshot. Natsu and Lucy looked at each other with matching looks of confusion. They may had beaten those thugs up, but not to death. It was the gang that was yelling after them that they were going to kill the two for being on their territory. Natsu didn't believe in killing.

So who did?

* * *

Juvia and Lyon made up, just like they always did, and Juvia was in a great mood. She had so much extra energy from her excitement, so in order to get rid of the excess crazy juice she decided to clean their apartment. Usually this was Lyon's area of expertise, considering Juvia was easily distracted and ended up making the apartment worse, and Lyon was a clean freak. Everything about him sparkled. However, today she was on a mission, and the focus she had was enough to push through the apartment. She was finishing up the last of the rooms, her and Lyon's bedroom, when she spotted something caught behind the bed frame.

"What the?" She grunted as she tried to wiggle the material out, but after a couple of minutes she gave up and started tugging on it. One last grunt and one last pull on the mystery object resulted in the poor water woman flying across the room with a mystery wrapped in her palms.

"A...bra?" She held the undergarment in the air. It was high pink and 100% not hers; however, her sleepovers could get a little hectic so maybe it belonged to one of her friends. She grabbed her phone and sent a mass text, asking who the owner of the bra was. Within minutes, she got an answer from everyone. Every reply was the same.

_No, it isn't mine._

* * *

Levy elbowed yet another tramp in the face as she tried to make her way across the club. It was a more perilous journey than she thought; one moment a handsome man is talking to her, the next five girls surrounded her with daggers shooting from her eyes. If she had a dollar every time one of the bloodthirsty women "accidentally" tripped her Levy could buy a library. After wandering through the crowd for half an hour, the bookworm finally spotted her prey. She advanced towards him easily, the evil aura surrounding her scaring everybody away.

"Hello, Iron face," she greeted with an evil chuckle. A similar sound erupted from Gajeel and a wicked smile appeared on his face, but in his eyes Levy could see a faint wisp of surprise, probably since she wasn't supposed to know where he worked. What her prey didn't know was that she was excellent at finding out information- that is, she was able to tail someone for a few hours unseen until the certain someone entered a bar that she then recognized. An especially good spy would also realize that he was the weird joking man who she won her first loot from.

So basically, she was a stalker, but she was a very skilled stalker.

"Hey, Twerp," he shuffled his playing cards and dealt them between himself and the vengeful bluenette. "Come to play a game?"

"I've come to kick your ass," she smiled confidently as the girls around them ooo-ed and ahhh-ed dramatically. A crowd started to form around them and someone started passing out drinks. Levy took one, though by then her opponent could tell she was already slightly drunk.

"You were lucky last time," he smirked, "I'll win this game."

"If you feel so lucky, why don't we make a bet?" Levy hiccuped and giggled. The drunken crowd laughed behind her with calls of "oh snap!" and "watch out!" and "oh hell nah, she is takin' my man!". Well, maybe not too much of the last one. But it was still called out, so we'll just roll with it.

"You're on! What's the wager?"

"Six months of servitude. No complaining," Levy was confident of her abilities. When it comes to cards, she was like Erza: she was invincible. However, the poor man in front of her didn't know that, so instead of running away in fear he chucked menacingly and their game begun.

(After a very long time of Levy kicking Gajeels ass at poker...)

"So, I've been thinking that you should wear a maids uniform," A drunken Levy said. Gajeel rearranged his cards and shot her a lopsided smile.

"Don't count me out just yet, runt," he chuckled, and the people around him craned their necks to get a look at his cards. Levy looked down at her own spread with a wicked smile. The poor man didn't have a chance. He was especially unlucky to be stuck being Levy's slave for half a year, for when she was pushed Levy was probably the worst slave driver in existence.

"How about we make this the last round? Unless, you know, you want to back out?" She carefully laid out her bait. Who said a drunk couldn't be clever and devious?

"Fine by me," Gajeel took the bait. With a loud and strange chuckle he laid out his hand: a straight flush. The crowd around him clapped and whistled. Levy feinted surprise and disappointment for a moment to drive up the dramatics before she laid down her cards.

"Sorry Iron Face," she showed him her cards. "Royal flush," she finished with a maniacal cackle. Getting up to get her things, she turned to her new slave with a smirk. "Meet me at the library bright and early tomorrow."

When she exited the House, she was still laughing from the priceless look of terror on the man's face.

* * *

**And that concludes the eighth chapter of House of Aces! I would like to point out that it is 8 pages long, and posted on the 2**8**th . There are eights everywhere!**

**May I point out that I've never actually played poker before? So if I made a mistake in the game, please tell me and I will correct it!**

**Anywho, I hope you liked this chapter! If you have any suggestions for lessons (I'm not really normal, so sometimes it's hard to think of) or plot twists you want to see, you can drop a review or PM me. I'd love to hear from you!**

**Until next time: Read, review, relax and EAT BACON :) **

**-NeverMakesSense**


	9. Confrontations and Insects

**Thank you, my darling readers, for the reviews, favorites and follows. Your support means so much to me :) **

**HEY, THIS IS IN ALL CAPS SO IT MUST BE PRETTY IMPORTANT. **

**Special thanks to **Demon-Art-Lover1** , who pointed out my grave mistake in the last chapter. I don't know if you guys noticed, but earlier in the story Levy hadn't remembered who Gajeel was. I forgot to add in how she was able to find out where he worked. I fixed it, so you can go back to that part if you want. **

**Anywho, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Fairy Tail. The king of trolls, Hiro Mashima, does instead. **

* * *

Natsu woke up three mornings after his shopping extravaganza with Lucy to the sound of arguing and the smell of burning meat. His always witty cat shared a look of confusion and panic as they both took in the racket caused by Gajeel and Gray.

"I should do something," Natsu stated but made no move to get up. Happy looked at him and nodded before falling back onto his pillow and falling back asleep. Natsu briefly reflected on how useless his partner can be sometimes. Once the poor boy was running away from a black haired monster and all the cat did was watch and eat a fish. The scar from that day still makes him shiver. With a groan he pushed himself out of bed and walked out into their now destroyed living room. Whirling around to yell at his friends so stop having fun without him, Natsu felt something impale his forehead.

"GOD DAMMIT!" He screamed, falling to the floor and twitching sporadically.

"NATSU CAUGHT IT!" Gajeel yelled. He walked over, as if he was going to be a true friend and help the confused man out, but one sniff of the air and he was at the stove, trying to save the burning meat. Well, some people say they like smoke flavored bacon...

Gray walked over and detached the mysterious object from his face.

"Finally, your stupid face came in handy," the ice mage said, holding up the strangest creature Natsu had ever seen. It was stark white with a golden cone for a nose, though it now had some of Natsu's blood dripping off of it, and small black eyes. While staring at the mini monster, he forgot to beat up his so called 'friend'.

"Pun pun!" The creature held its arms out towards Natsu. He jumped back in case it decided to spear him again.

"Oh, a dog," Happy yawned as he walked into the room.

"How is that thing a dog?" Gajeel eyed the so called 'dog'. He brought over a plate of charred bacon to Natsu, since he was probably the only person who could possibly stomach the destroyed food.

"This was the last of Lucy's bacon," Natsu complained as he munched on the charcoal.

"Who's Lucy?" Gray nudged Natsu's arm. Happy giggled evilly, ready to spout some crazy lie but Natsu was able to cover his mouth in time. No need for another girlfriend scare. If Mirajane came back to interrogate him again Natsu may not survive a second time.

"Some girl that's paying me to teach her how to be normal," he explained.

"How to be normal? From you?" Gajeel laughed. "She should get her money back."

"Shut up- OW!" Natsu retracted his now bitten hand from Happy's mouth. The cat rolled his eyes and mumbled how he didn't bite that hard.

"Whatever. More importantly, what are we doing with with this dog?" Gray held up the small snowma- uh, dog. Well, they definitely couldn't keep it with the money they had. Even with Lucy's normal lessons, they couldn't afford another living being to be in the apartment. Plus, it was a classic horror movie plot to have some unknown creature to start living with people, and then in the middle of the night it goes around eating faces. Natsu refused to go down like that.

"I'll take him to the pound," Natsu grabbed his jacket and picked up the quivering dog. Huh, are dogs supposed to shake like that? Maybe he had to pee or something...

"Where are you going?" Gray yelled after Gajeel, who followed Natsu out the door.

"Out," Gajeel grumbled, slamming the door behind him. All alone, Gray turned around and looked at the mess him and Gajeel had made when they were trying to catch the dog. It had appeared out of thin air, which caused them both to freak out and start destroying furniture without a second thought. Now he was all alone with Happy.

"Well Happy, it's just you and me," Gray sighed. The cat watched him start to clean up the mess for a minute before walking over to the door and opening it.

"Nope, just you," Happy flew out the door to chase after his owner.

"TRAITOR!" Gray yelled after him.

* * *

"I'm going to kill him," Levy said, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited in front of the library. Her new slave was late, a fact the infamous dictator Levy McGarden did not like.

"Who are you going to kill?" A gruff voice asked behind her. Levy stifled a shriek of surprise, whirling around and throwing a wild punch. She instantly regretted it though, when her knuckles registered an immense amount of pain. What the hell is he made of? Iron?

"Oh, no one. Yet," she muttered darkly. She looked up at his pierced face and a slow smile stretched across her face. Oh, what a perfect plan she had in mind. He was perfect to play the part.

"What's with the creepy look, shrimp?" He asked, looking slightly scared at the girls insanity.

"For the next six months you are going to be my boyfriend, with the goal of getting a certain two boys out of my personal bubble," She made him lean in closer while she explained the rest of her plan in a whisper.

All the while a similar, creepy smile settled on Gajeel's face.

* * *

Lucy hummed as she walked on the ledge of the wall that acted as a divider between the river and the street. For some reason she felt more free than she usually did. Maybe it was the new clothes. Even though her outfits showed more than she was used to, they also didn't weigh down on her as much. Plus, after staring at her reflection for a few hours she decided that the outfits didn't look too bad on her. Ever since then Lucy was on a never ending cloud of happiness.

"Is that Lucy?" She heard one of the regular boaters on the river ask his companion. Lucy turned and waved at them, ignoring their calls to get off the ledge. It was her mini tradition to always walk on it when she had the chance. This afternoon she was on a mission to replenish her paper shortage so she could get back to writing and in her sweatpants as soon as possible.

Her happy plans came to an end, however, the second she caught sight of three shadows in between two buildings. Since those buildings were a school and an old house, she decided it wouldn't be too dangerous if she checked it out. Plus, she could practically hear Natsu calling her to suck it up and go check it out. Such words of endearment she gets from her teacher.

"We told you, Wendy," Lucy heard a boy say. She snuck alongside the wall of the abandoned house and peered into the alleyway, seeing a group of two boys and one girl. That description didn't really draw the right picture though. It was more like two ogres towering over a small girl who, though she was wearing a high school uniform, didn't look older then twelve.

"That business was between us and Romeo," the other troll snarled. Panicking, Lucy looked around for someone who could break up the threatening meeting, but there was no one else walking on the street except for some tiny school kids. Well, that means there was only one thing left to do...

Oh wait, running away in terror is NOT what you're supposed to do.

"HEY!" Lucy yelled. She stepped out from her hiding spot and walked closer to the group. It was now that she realized the girl was the nice employee from the department store that her and Natsu had emotionally scarred. That's why the name Wendy sounded so familiar!

"He," the first monster chuckled, "grab Blondie," Lucy glared at the approaching boy. She ripped one of her heels and threw it at the guys face. Immediately afterword it was an action she regretted since one, it seemed to make the thug even angrier and two, she was borrowing the heels from Mira. When the beautiful demoness finds out what happened to her shoes there is no telling what she will do. So, either the trolls eat her now or Mirajane kills her later. What to choose...

"Hey!" Lucy protested as her arms were wretched behind her back. The first thug leered at her while putting Wendy in the same hold.

Well. Things were definitely not going to plan. In fact, she was absolutely screwed. Lucy recognized the wicked look in their eyes; it was the same look as back then. The look that said I'm-going-to-destroy-your-life-and-you-can't-do-a- thing-about-it.

_Not again, _she thought, _ please, not again. Not to Wendy or me. _Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, as if she could block out the whole world. It wasn't enough though, and the boy's laughter will probably echo throughout her nightmares for the rest of her life.

However, in her sweetest dreams is the sound of their pained screams and Natsu's enraged yelling. Lucy opened her eyes open in time to see a strange insect stab it's nose into the foot of the first thug, effectively freeing Wendy, and Natsu punching the second in the face. Wasting no time, Lucy grabbed the small girl's hand and made a break for the bright world outside the alley, grabbing Mirajane's shoe on the way out. The two girls could still hear screaming echoing off the walls of the buildings as they stepped out into the light, trying to catch a breath.

"Thank you, Bacon God," Lucy breathed and straightened up. Wendy brushed off her skirt and nodded in agreement.

"Thank _you, _for distracting them. You're Natsu-san's girlfriend Lucy, right?" She smiled brightly.

"NO!" Lucy blushed, "I mean, yeah, but I'm just his friend. You're a friend of Natsu's, right?"

"Yes. We were in the same gui- orphanage," She smiled uneasily at her word stumble, "Natsu was about as lively back then as he is now. Always up to something, be it fighting someone or pulling pranks."

"I'd believe it," Lucy mumbled, watching the victorious boy emerge from the darkness with the insect following behind him. He looked really serious, which was strange to see. Lucy didn't think there was a serious bone in his body. Wendy looked equally surprised, so with a quick bow and a second 'thank you' she scurried off in the direction of Marvel's Emporium, saying something about being late for the afternoon shift. Traitor.

"What were you thinking!" He yelled angrily.

"I was just trying to help," Lucy stepped back, surprised at his outburst. She never heard him yell; heck, she didn't even think it was possible for him to be this angry with someone.

"Really? Because it didn't look like you were helping to me!"

"Shut up! You would've done the same thing!" Lucy crossed her arms and stomped her foot in frustration. It's been a while since she allowed her anger to take over like this. It felt soooo good.

"Yeah, because I can fight! You can't do anythi- did you seriously just stomp your foot, princess?" He scoffed.

"Never call me Princess," Lucy said darkly. That nickname reminded her of the days she spent in her castle of a home, crying out for a parent that would never come. Her sudden change in mood seemed to snap Natsu out of his anger.

"Sorry," he breathed, "It's just, if Shabutaro wasn't there to find you-"

"Shabutaro?"

"Yeah, he's this dog I found," He pointed to a small animal next to him.

"That's a dog?" Lucy looked at the creature by his feet. At first she thought it was an insect, but it could be some type of dog if she squinted her eyes a little. The thought of a bug being that large was also troubling to think about, so calling it a dog would probably be better. Though the name had to go. It just sounded so wrong.

"Anyway, you need a way to protect yourself," He watched Lucy play with Shabutaro for a couple of minutes. "Hey, why don't you just keep him! His nose is a lethal weapon. And, you know, the pound wouldn't keep him..."

"Hm," Lucy looked at the quivering dog and, overwhelmed by his cuteness, squished him in a hug. "I'm going to call you Plue!" She squealed. The dog in her arms answered with a small 'pun', which she took as an affirmative.

"Well, this'll work for now," Natsu muttered, "but you should get a weapon or something."

"Thanks, Natsu," Lucy looked up and smiled.

It might have been her imagination, but she thought that she could see a faint blush flash across his cheeks.

* * *

Juvia was ready for the kill. She had waited days after she found the bra, trying to tell herself that her fiance wasn't a cheating buttface, but after observing his peculiar behavior for a few days, and taking into consideration the evidence she had been missing lately, she was pretty convinced it was true. Lyon had been jumpier than ever; at one point she heard him scratching around the bed in their room, cursing to herself. Add in his random outburst a week ago and the random perfume she never bought and we have a cheating man for sure.

Over the passed couple of days she had given him chances to revel himself, but there was nothing. So, she was ready to confront the cheating man and give him a piece of her mind. Already she could sense some storm clouds gathering in the late afternoon sky. Good thing she took off work for the rest of the day.

The door opened. Footsteps tapped lightly on the floor. The sound of clicking heels came closer and closer to the bedroom. Wait. Heels?

"Lyon?" She called out tentatively. The approaching steps stopped abruptly. For several antagonizing moments it was completely silent while both parties waited for the first move. Juvia decided it was time to get a move on, so she got up and ran out of the room at the speed of light. Bursting into the living room of the apartment she met her answer. Lyon was trying to scurry out the door with a pinkette clutching his arm. The man opened his mouth to say something, but one look at her tear filled eyes and he walked out of the apartment.

She thought she was ready.

She knew it was going to be true.

Nothing could have prepared her for the sadness that overtook her. It hit her like a sudden wave in the ocean, a horrible emptiness that spread throughout her body. A glob of water fell from her eyes, and into her cupped hands, absorbing back into her water body. Outside a storm raged; rain pelted her apartment windows and sounded more like gunfire than water. When she was all cried out, she then turned to anger.

What, was she not good for him? Why did he propose if he was just going to cheat on her? Was she just going to let him have all the happiness? She could go out and get a boyfriend if she wanted to!

But where was she going to get one?

"Does it really matter?" She asked herself aloud. Shaking her head, Juvia grabbed her coat, umbrella and rain boots, braving the storm her turbulent feelings had caused.

* * *

Erza was finally enjoying a day off with her boyfriend Jellal. Between their two jobs the poor couple never had time together. Even when they did, the two were so stressed from money problems and work problems that they fought all of the time. She was aware their day together was over the second she heard the first drops of rain hit their windows.

"Funny, it wasn't supposed to rain," Jellal murmured.

"No, it wasn't," Erza sighed. Juvia was in a crisis again. Erza hoped it wasn't something with Lyon again. She had introduced the couple in the beginning, and she couldn't wait to wear her bridesmaid dress down the aisle. It was a very pretty dress- wait, no, this is about Juvia. Focus on Juvia.

"Your friend Juvia?" Jellal asked, watching his girlfriend get her coat and shoes on. Erza nodded and kissed him on the cheek.

"Yeah, she must be going though a serious meltdown right now. I'll be back as soon as possible," the two waved at each other from opposite sides of the door, and in a flash of lightning Erza was gone.

* * *

**Finally, I was able to squeeze in Erza and Jellal! Wohoo! You guys probably forgot about them too, like I did, didn't you? Or maybe you didn't and I'm all alone on my boat of forgetfulness. That's the story of my life. **

**And, there were some Rave Master references! Weeeeeee! I'M A NERD!**

**Please, don't forget to drop a review! I can reply to them all now, which is either a good thing or a creepy thing, you guys can decide.**

**AP world history scores came out in my region today, so with that in mind I shall quote the three main lessons I learned in that class:**

**Never invade Russia**

**Never occupy Afghanistan**

**Whore houses are good, but expensive**

**Yup. My teacher was pretty weird. **

**Anywho, till next time...**

**-NeverMakesSense**


	10. Comforting and Revenge

**Thank you for your continued support guys! **

**Reviews of the...chapter? Eh, whatever. **

**Doraguniru:**

"idk why but reading about juvia ready for the kill and bra are funny. it's like she wants to start a war with it lol."

**Celtika82:**

"Great story. Looking forward to reading more. Lesson one should have been "Don't call people at 3 in the morning unless blood is involved.""

**Disclaimer: Only thing I own is the laptop that this story is written with. Even then, I got it for Christmas, so it's technically not mine...**

* * *

Lucy sprinted towards Juvia's apartment. Well, she tried to sprint, but with the magnitude of the rain, she slipped every other step. Her slow progress eventually got her to her destination, right in time to crash into Erza and together they not-so-elegantly fell to the ground. Thankfully Erza wasn't wearing her usual armor; Lucy would've been seriously hurt otherwise. It wasn't all luck though. Erza's glare had enough malice to scare Hitler's mustache off his face.

"Oh, it's just you Lucy," Erza sighed, the evil aura around her relaxing. Lucy suppressed a whimper that threatened to escape her throat. Erza must have had the day off. When a person interrupts her Jellal-time, it gets ugly. The knight stared at her for a few minutes with a perplexed look on her face.

"What?" Lucy asked warily.

"You look different, somehow...," her friend murmured, giving Lucy a piercing stare.

"These are new clothes," Lucy gestured to herself; they were now soaked from the rain and were covered with muddy water. Well, they were new, at least.

"No, not that," Erza shook her head and continued staring at Lucy, making her feel even more self conscious than she normally felt. She got up and walked into the building's lobby. Erza's footsteps, usually loud and menacing, lightly tapped behind her. Inside the two friends were met with a distraught looking Mira and a pissed off Levy.

"Mira!" Lucy called.

"Lucy?" The white haired beauty answered, surprised.

"Lu-chan!" Levy snapped out of her anger, excited to see her.

Levy! Mira!" Erza walked up next to Lucy.

"Erza?" Levy's eyes widened in surprise. It was rare for the red head to have a day off, after all.

"Erza!" Mira called out happily.

"Sandy!" Called out the counter lady, making the four friends look over at her. She smiled sheepishly and apologized, raising a magazine to cover her blushing face.

"Where's Juvia?" Lucy asked Mira. The smile gracing her face immediately dropped and the worried look returned.

"We don't know, she's not in her apartment," she replied. Silence washed over them as they pondered where the emotional woman ran off to.

_Juvia, what have you gotten yourself into?_

* * *

All his life, Gray had been good with women. Well, on the outside anyway. On the inside he usually found them quite annoying and petty. However, it was now his job to understand and entertain, and for the past couple of years he has been pretty good at it.

Until today.

Why is today different, you may ask? Well, probably because he has a hysterically crying woman clutching him like no tomorrow, and nothing he says will make her let go.

The working day started off like usual. Some airheads were squealing about how 'dreamy' he was, and if he had ever seen Twilight because he was so sexy like Edward. Yes, he had (on a dare of course. Elfman kept on screaming that "VAMPIRES ARE SO MAN!", but by the time they exited the theater the poor man kept on cringing at every speck of glitter he saw) and though Gray took that as an insult he still responded with some weird, romantic line that made them swoon and shower him with dollars shoved discreetly in his pockets.

And then, the door slammed open. An ominous silence washed over the crowd as a single woman entered the club. Gray shrunk down in his seat, scared that it was Ultear coming to visit him again. Thankfully, it wasn't the demon woman. Instead it was a beautiful blunette, who was wearing a dark blue coat with a fur shawl. She set down a soft pink umbrella against the wall next to the door. After sizing her up, the girls allowed the club's activities to resume. As she made her way through the mob of people, Gray couldn't fight the intense deja vu that washed over him. He had definitely seen this girl before, but where?

Their eyes meet and a strange wave of emotion washed over him. It felt like Natsu flame-punched his chest, but without the pain.

"GRAY-SAMA!" The woman wailed. In the blink of an eye she was able to push through the crowd separating them and lock her arms around his stomach. She was blubbering like a beached whale, all of her words were inaudible. Feeling the heat of the stares directed at the poor woman, Gray stood up and awkwardly started to shuffle towards the back rooms. On the way he grabbed Natsu, knowing he was going to need his connections.

Gray remembered this crying rain woman. If he remembered correctly, she was the friend of that strange blonde Natsu was giving 'normal' lessons to.

"What the hell, Gray!?" Natsu yelled when they entered one of the back rooms. Gray tripped over the emotional mess that was attached to him, hitting the floor with a loud THUD. He gestured to the sobbing woman who was clutching his midsection for dear life. A look of recognition flashed across Natsu's face.

"She's Lucy's friend," he stated.

"Call her!" Gray begged. God, begging to Natsu. Never thought he'd see the day.

An evil smile stretched over Natsu's face as he realized his enemy's position. He started laughing evilly, to which Gray cringed in horror and his sobbing attachment stopped crying for a brief moment. He stopped abruptly and whispered his demands.

"I'd rather scoop my eyes out with a spork," Gray snapped.

"Then you can just chill with her for a while," Natsu shrugged and started to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Natsu turned around. "Fine," Gray sighed, consenting to his defeat. The pink haired demon restarted his evil laughter as he grabbed his cell phone. Gray turned his attention to the main problem at hand.

"There, there," he awkwardly patted her head. "What's wrong?"

"LyoncheatedonmehowcouldhedothatIthoughthelovedme. .." she babbled on and on, but was talking so quick he couldn't really understand her words. All he could understand that someone cheated.

_Please, someone. Help me!_

* * *

"WHAT?" Lucy yelled into her phone, "JUVIA'S AT THE HOUSE?"

"God Luce, stop yelling," Natsu's voice sounded far away. He was probably holding the device away from his ear to protect it from her shrill screaming. Lucy's friends clustered around the girl with anxious looks.

"Is she okay?" Lucy asked worriedly.

"Um, define 'okay'..." He trailed off. In the background, Lucy heard loud sobbing.

"She's crying a lot, isn't she?"

"Yeah. We had to sacrifice Gray."

"Oh god. We'll be over there as soon as we can."

"Nah, take your time. I love seeing the bastard suffer."

"Ten minutes," Lucy hung up. She looked around at her friends' surprised faces. "What? I can have other friends," she said defensively. She led the group out and they all broke into a run towards the House. A sinking feeling filled her as she realized the look they all shot her as they ran.

They were going to grill her later about this. Ugh, ruthless women.

* * *

Finally, the woman had stopped crying. All it took was five minutes of bashing her ex-fiance with her, a couple of ice roses, some alcohol and one of the 'secret' chocolate bars Bob keeps behind a painting in his office. However, she still wouldn't let him out of her grasp.

"I love you, Gray-sama!" She declared for the fifth time. For the fifth time Gray wondered what was taking her friends so long to arrive. He was worried for this girl's safety and, you know, he could barely breathe. Natsu was watching him with an amused expression, laughing louder and louder as the minutes dragged on.

"Juvia!" A pretty blonde burst into the room with more girls behind her. Gray had never been more thankful to a group of girls in his life.

"Lushi!" Juvia slurred, letting go of Gray and latching onto the blonde. Gray sighed in relief, looking over at Natsu. He found the boy frozen, like a deer caught in headlights.

"Gray? Natsu?" Mira stepped forward. Gray and Natsu cringed under her stare.

"Hey, Mira," Natsu greeted warily. She opened her mouth to say something, but Juvia started crying again, launching herself into Mira's arms. Obviously the matter wasn't over, but for now the two boys were safe. Mira turned and started walking the disaster of a woman out of the room. It was for a brief second, but Gray saw Juvia turn her head and wink in his direction.

Huh, maybe that girl wasn't so bad.

"Thanks, Natsu," the blonde waved and ran out to follow her friends.

"Damn," Gray whistled, "She's hot."

"Shut up," Natsu pushed him, starting a massive fight that would probably end up breaking every object in the room.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Erza sat back on Lucy's couch, "Lyon cheated on you with some pinkette and now you love Gray, who Mira seems to know. And, most freaky of all, Lucy has other friends we don't know about."

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Juvia nodded. "Wait, Lucy has other friends?"

"YES, I CAN HAVE ANOTHER FRIEND!" Lucy yelled. The girls looked at her seriously for a moment before breaking out into laughter, leaving the blonde to pout in a corner.

"Calm down Lucy, we're kidding," Levy giggled and hugged her friend. Lucy rolled her eyes at the horribly concealed lie, but decided to forgive her anyway. As the rest of her friends settled in for their unplanned stay, Lucy looked at her mail.

Bill, spam, spam, spam, oh, look! A letter. No return address either. Weird.

"Lu-chan!" Levy called. Lucy stuffed the letter in the pocket of her robe. She could read it later.

* * *

"I hate you, Natsu," Gray snarled. He put his clothes, all but his underwear, in his bag. Grabbing the neck of the guitar Natsu held in his hands, Gray wondered if it really would have been so bad to have that woman clutch him for eternity. It wasn't like she was ugly or anything; in fact, one she calmed down, she seemed like an interesting person. Plus, then he wouldn't have to do what he was about to do.

"Hey guys!" Natsu yelled, grabbing the attention of every soul in the club. He was standing on a small stage in the back of the club that hired singers and bands would play on once in a while. Once everyone was looking his way, Natsu waved Gray onto the stage. He waited for the loud squeals and whisles (probably in response to his almost naked appearance, no doubt) to quiet down before making his announcement. "Gray is going to sing a song!" He smiled evilly and hopped off the stage, going to where Gajeel, Jellal and Elfman had gathered to laugh at their friend's suffering.

"Gray can't sing," Gajeel laughed. Natsu nodded, laughing to hard to speak. On stage the ice mage turned on the mike and strummed the guitar. He gritted his teeth and opened his mouth.

"Overtaken my Natsu's awesomeness, I wrote this song," he deadpanned. He started playing on the guitar, choosing to ignore the slight laughter that started to pass over the crowd.

"Natsu, you are so awesome, so much better than me..." Gray's horrible singing voice assaulted the ears of everyone in the club. While most of the people covered their ears or started to cry from disappointment, there were four boys who stood there smiling and laughing, as if they were immune to the noise.

Ah sweet, sweet revenge.

* * *

**If anyone wants to write the rest of the lyrics to that song (I was too lazy to, so...) I will put them in the next chapter! Sorry this one is a bit short. The next one probably will be too.**

** There is also a possibility that I will not update for two weeks. I'm with my dad, and for some annoying reason he decided to make me stay with him for two weeks straight. Usually I don't bring my laptop with me (and last night it almost died, so that's always fun) but this time I'm sucking it up for you guys. However, I won't have as much time to write and my laptop might break again.**

** But, my problems aside, please leave a review! They make me laugh and I can pretend I have friends.**

** I hope you liked this chapter. Until next time...BACON FOREVER.**

** ~NevermakesSense**


	11. Nightmares, secrets and gangs

**Welcome to chapter 11, my friends! Thank you for staying with me so long :) And, thank you for leaving me 113 fabulous reviews so far! You guys are amazing!**

…

**Does anyone even read this AN? If not, then I get to have a freak out party with myself! Weee! OMG GUESS WHAT SOMEONE MENTIONED THIS STORY ON TUMBLR. MY LIFE WAS MADE. I literally started to hyperventilate in my kitchen. My family probably thinks I'm crazy now. That's a lie, they already dubbed me insane.**

**If no one reads this, does that mean I'm talking to myself? Hmmmm...**

**Disclaimer: I'm still in the process of planning my world domination, so until that plan is executed I sadly do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

Once again, Natsu found himself stuck in a never ending darkness. He couldn't see, hear or smell anything, even with his advanced dragon slayer senses. There was nothing, just like the last time he found himself here. Familiar with this setting, he set off in a random direction and prepared himself for what was to happen at the end of his journey. Lisanna and blood and death and blood and-

That was just a dream. None of it was real. None of this is real.

He continued to wander about for what seemed like ages but was probably only minutes. His anticipation for what was going to happen made time pass by much slower. He reached the maximum of his patience and started running, thinking that he could get to the end sooner. It was a stupid idea, however, because as soon as his feet started gaining speed Natsu ran into a wall. A very hard, nose breakable wall.

_What the hell? _he thought, still not able to speak. This was a new development. Last time he had this dream there were no walls. But there was one, right in front of him, though he still couldn't see it. If there were walls, maybe there was a door...

Natsu ran his hand along the barrier as he walked in one direction. Sure enough, he felt a corner and then another wall started. He continued to walk, and found himself to be at a metal door. There was something sticky on his hands, and the familiar scent of blood floated around him. So maybe the dream wasn't all that different from the last one. Eager to just get this whole thing over with, Natsu opened the door and walked into a pitch black room. He heard someone crying, and by the sound of it the person was a little girl.

"Hello?" His voice returned, echoing off of the walls. The crying stopped and the sound of something dragging took its place. Was that girl dragging herself towards him? She must be, because the smell of blood was getting stronger.

"Help," her weak voice croaked. She started to cough.

As if a small girl crying for help wasn't horrible enough, the lights finally flashed on. Natsu had prepared himself for this moment. When the figure was revealed to be Lisanna. He was ready for that. Well, he told himself he was ready, but he probably wasn't. He definitely wasn't ready for the little girl to be the smaller version of Lucy. She was covered with dirt and blood and God knows what else, but Natsu could recognize those brown eyes anywhere. She was quivering, trying to cover herself with the remains of her torn dress, and looked up at him like he was a monster.

"Luce?" He tried to reach out to her, but she crawled back a few feet. She had no intentions of getting help from him. So instead he got to watch in terror as the girl started to morph and grow into the Lucy he knew today. She stood up and stared at him with dead eyes. There were wounds all over her, especially on her face and legs.

"Why couldn't you protect me, Natsu?" She asked as she stumbled forward. Even her voice sounded dead, devoid of all hope. Natsu caught her before she could fall and hurt herself further. She whispered something in his ear and then, right there in his arms, stopped breathing.

Natsu woke up, breathing hard, with those words still echoing in his head.

_It's all your fault, Natsu._

_ It's all your fault._

_ All. Your. Fault._

* * *

Ah, it was finally the moment of truth! The other girls were knocked out on Lucy's bedroom floor. It was a long and hard battle to make them all go to sleep; Erza wanted to watch the Weapons of the World marathon on TV, Levy kept on poking through Lucy's letters from work (and laughing at all of the suggestive and stupid ones), Juvia was eating Lucy's ice cream and nutella like there was no tomorrow and, probably worst of all, Mira was trying to play matchmaker with Lucy and guys from a dating website. So, through some very sneaky maneuvers involving milk, soft music and, in Erza's case, tranquilizers, Lucy was able to make them all fall asleep.

Now, it was time for the reveal. Lucy held her breath as she opened the letter. When she saw the familiar handwriting however, she deflated. It was from her father. Again. Lucy made a move to throw the letter into the fire when she realized something. The envelope was different from usual, not decorated with the Heartfilia crest and it didn't feel like high quality paper, so he must have been really desperate to get a hold of her. If she was trying to change herself, maybe he was too. She should give him a chance, right? Lucy retracted her arm and opened the letter again. She took a deep breath and let her eyes flow over the words.

_Dear Lucy,_

_ I have been trying to get in contact with you for a while. It seems that my letters haven't been getting to you, or you have just been throwing them away. As much as I like the first option, the second is probably true. _

_ I know it's foolish of me to think that you will read this and forgive me instantly, but I will keep on trying until the day I die. I'm your father, and I want to go out knowing that you at least do not hate me._

_ So, this is my round about way of saying that I am so sorry for what happened when you were a child. I should have never abandoned you; you just reminded me so much of Layla that I couldn't stand to see you. At least, that is what I've been trying to tell myself all these years._

_ I can never forgive myself, and it's okay that you can't either. I just want to talk. So please, stop feeding your fire with these letters, and send me a reply. Even if all it says is "_I hate you._"_

_ I love you, Lucy. _

_ -Papa_

Lucy was stunned. He was...apologizing to her? He told her he loved her? A quick glance out the window told her the world wasn't ending and pigs weren't flying around, so how could this letter even exist? It was like her wildest dreams came true, minus it raining bacon outside. Maybe she really can forgi-

RRRRIIIINNNNGGGG! Her annoying cellphone went off once again. Really technology, really? Interrupting an epiphany? How low can you get? Lucy heard Erza groan and start to move, so she jumped on the device to make it shut up.

"Hello?" She whispered, looking warily at the scarlet knight. The girl in question rolled over and began to snore, making Lucy sigh in relief. Her friend was so scary when she just gets up, like a demon raising from Hell to take your soul. That was something Lucy did NOT want to witness at 3 in the morning.

"Lucy? Why are you whispering?" Natsu asked. He sounded out of breath.

"I have four girls in my room that have the capability to destroy the world when they're tired. Why wouldn't I whisper?" She snapped at him.

"Whatever. Come outside right now."

"Why?" Lucy questioned, looking outside her window in disbelief. Standing under the lamppost was the pink haired felon that weaseled his way into her life. He was looking around anxiously and tapping his foot in an irregular pattern. He noticed her looking out the window and started to wave his arms around like an idiot. Well, he was an idiot, so...

"Hurry up!" He yelled. Lucy sighed, realizing that there was nothing she could do to make him go away. In the brief time that she had known him, she never once saw him give up on something he had put his mind on. It was one of the nice and annoying qualities he possessed. So instead of arguing that it was very early in the morning and she did not feel like almost getting arrested again, Lucy shrugged on a sweatshirt and grabbed her keys and the letter. There was no way she was leaving that piece of the past laying around; she loved her friends, but they tended to pry into unwanted territory. And so, with a string of curses and a prayer that her friends won't wake up, Lucy Heartfilia left her apartment to meet a boy.

Little did she know, two demonesses slithered out after her. One had a dark aura surrounding her, red hair floating in an invisible wind. The other white haired demon started chuckling evilly, grabbing a wedding magazine as she walked out.

Their mission Stalk Lucy and her New Friend was a go.

* * *

When Natsu saw Lucy walk out he was half expecting her to be bathed in blood. Of course, she walked out wound free, chilling in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. He breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't hold himself back from giving her a hug.

Lucy wasn't the only one that was surprised.

"Natsu, Wha-" She gasped in wonder.

"Shh, just go with it," he interrupted, squeezing the life out of her. Lucy awkwardly patted his back, the only place she could reach since her arms were pinned to her sides. After a couple of minutes of not breathing, Lucy started to turn red which made him finally let go. He tugged her in a direction without a word, ignoring a strange heat on the back of his head. It was almost like someone was pointing a laser at him.

(Meanwhile, in Erza and Mira spy mode)

"I'm going to murder," Erza growled, her eyes practically glowing a crimson red as she glared at the boy who was currently touching her best friend. Lucy was like a baby when it came to romance, and by the look of this scene, her new friend was taking advantage of that. Maybe he was the reason for the clothing change as well...

"What are you talking about? This is great!" Mira whispered, slapping Erza's arm as she freaked out. She knew that Natsu's hormones were basically nonexistent; all he had ever focused on was training, never giving a second glance at any pretty girl who tried to flirt with him. Yet, here he was, hugging a girl. One that he didn't even grow up with. Heck, Mira grew up with him and she never got a hug from him! THIS WAS A SPECIAL MOMENT, DAMMIT!

"Natsu and Lucy," She sung, "Nalu. Oh my God, Erza, I ship them so hard."

All Erza could do was face palm.

(Back to Natsu vision!)

"Do you ever feel like your actions are controlled by some weird girl with a laptop?" Lucy asked randomly as she balanced on the ledge next to the river passing by her apartment.

"...No," he reached out a hand, ready to catch her if necessary. She wobbled a bit but was able to steady herself by grabbing his hand.

"Then what are we doing outside at 3 AM?"

"Um..." He looked around for something to distract her. No, a distraction wasn't enough, she would be upset if it didn't have any meaning behind it. Think, Natsu, think!

And then he saw it. The building that he grew up in. Fairy Tail.

"I wanted to show you the best place ever. Fairy Tail," he pointed to the old building. The guild turned orphanage was holding up after all these years of rowdiness, but not without aging a bit. The green shutters were almost falling off, white paint was fading in every place and ivy was crawling along the walls, slowly consuming the building.

"You were part of Fairy Tail?" She gasped. When she looked at him it seemed like her eyes were sparkling.

"Yup, ever since I was a kid." Natsu smiled widely.

"Wow," Lucy said dreamily, "When I was little I dreamed of getting into that guild."

"You can use magic?" Natsu was surprised. He never sensed any magical power coming from her, nor did he ever see her use magic in any dangerous situation she was caught in. Though guilds were illegal (hence why even mentioning the word was an act said in total privacy), magic wasn't (yet), so it wasn't like she had to hide it.

"Not now," she sighed.

(And now a brief moment of Erza and Mirajane)

"Did you know Lucy used to be able to use magic?" Erza whispered to Mira.

"I guess there are things about Lucy that we still don't know," Mira murmured thoughtfully. The answer left a sick feeling in Erza's stomach. Lucy had always been a bit vague about her past; they all knew that she had a distant father and something bad happened to her, but that's where the story ends. So why was she telling this guy, who was practically a stranger, things that even Erza wasn't aware of?

"Don't blame yourself, Erza," Mira patted her friend's shoulder, "Natsu is really nice and easy to talk to."

"I still don't like it," she got up and started to head back to the apartment.

"You shall convert to Nalu soon enough," Mira giggled evilly under her breath, skipping behind Erza with a creepy glint in her eye.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself. Back to Natsu vision!)

Well, this was awkward. After that vague answer about her magic, Lucy stopped talking. With nothing else to keep them there, Natsu started to lead them back to her apartment in silence. They were a couple blocks away when he heard what sounded to be an argument. He stopped short, making Lucy walk right into him. He covered her mouth before she could complain. Concentrating harder, he was able to hear snippets of the ongoing argument. Lucy wiggled from his grasp and silently crept closer so she could hear it as well.

"We don't follow nobody!" An angry voice yelled. A chorus of approvals echoed behind him.

"Guys, come on," a smooth voice said, "I don't want to hurt you."

"Ha!" the first man chuckled, "I have a 100 guys here, and you think you can hurt us?" An ocean of laughter joined in with the first. Natsu started backing away, pulling Lucy with him. With 100 guys, it was unlikely they would be able to get out unscathed if they were caught.

"So your answer is no?" He heard the second voice ask.

"Of course it's no!" Laughed the first.

When they heard the screams, they started to sprint the last couple of blocks. Natsu was surprised Lucy was able to keep up with him; if he remembered correctly, she said something like 'exercise is for non book readers.' Whatever the reason, they safely made it to her apartment, breathing heavily.

"Why is it always danger with you?" She snapped.

"I like to live on the edge," he smirked. Lucy rolled her eyes and took out her keys.

"Whatever. Next time you have a bad dream, just eat some bacon instead of calling me at 3 in the morning," She opened the door and walked inside.

"What is up with you and bacon?" He wondered.

"If your mom was the daughter of a pig farm owner, you would be obsessed as well," she waved and shut the door in his face. He started to walk away, thinking about what they had just heard. Was that guy the one who got to the other gang? What is going on?

_Wait a second, _ he stopped, realizing Lucy's last words, _How did she know I had a nightmare?_

* * *

Lucy quietly entered her apartment, tiptoeing to her room to check on her friends. They were all in a deep sleep. All of them...wait, where's Erza?

"Hey Lucy," she heard the girl yawn behind her. Slowly Lucy turned around, scared that the woman would suddenly attack her or something.

"Hey, Erza," she gulped.

"I want you to have something," Erza pulled out what seemed to be a whip from behind her back and placed it in her friend's hands. "It's for protection, you know?" She explained, yawning a second time. Lucy nodded and watched her friend crawl back into her sleeping bag, snoring as soon as her head hit the pillow. Walking out to her kitchen, Lucy put the weapon on the table. Then, she headed over to her desk, taking out the letter on the way, and opened the wooden box she kept there. The contents of the box gleamed in the moonlight; silver and gold keys that brought a strong feeling of nostalgia as she gazed at them. She took the keys out and placed the letter underneath.

"Punnnn~," She looked down to see Plue at her feet. She smiled softly and picked him up, showing him the small collection of keys she possessed.

"I used to be a talented celestial mage, you know," she whispered sadly. Plue patted her face and put something on the desk. It was a key, with the constellation of the Canis Minor on it.

Wait a second. That's the consellation of the dog. Plue is a weird looking dog. How did she not realize this before?

"Holy shit, you're a spirit?!" she whisper-yelled. He nodded his head and pushed the key into her hands. Lucy hadn't realized it until now, but he was looking more translucent then before. If he really was a spirit, then Plue was probably reaching his limit for staying in the normal world. Hm, actually, how did he even get into the normal world...

"I can't be your owner, Plue. I can't use my magic anymore," she patted his head, noticing that his feet were starting to disappear. He shook his head and pointed at the key again. The lower half of his body was gone.

"Fine," Lucy sighed. "We can make a contract when you're better."

Plue cheered, the sound hanging in the air even when he fully disappeared. Lucy looked at his key and shrugged, putting it in the box with all of the others. Maybe she couldn't use magic anymore, but she still had an obligation to protect his key. She closed the box, got up, and went back into her room to sleep.

* * *

**And there you have it. We have her dad groveling for an apology (sorry if that sounded really fake by the way. I'm an emotionless person usually, except for Nalu and fanfiction.), Mira going insane with shipping Lucy with Natsu, Natsu having a terrifying nightmare, and to top it all off a very sketchy scene in the dead of the night.**

**Plus, we now know why Lucy has an obsession with bacon! Her mom was part of a pig farm and passed the obsession along to her daughter. And you guys thought I was just being insane. Well, I am, but...whatever.**

**Don't forget to leave me a review! Even if it says the story sucks, I don't care. Well, I do, but then it would give me something to improve upon!**

**Until next time, my Nalu friends!**

**~NeverMakesSense**


	12. Demons and payments

**Thank you for all the lovely reviews, favorites and follows. You guys are the best. Thanks to Lucechan and Sanders-sama, who mentioned this story on tumblr. Seriously, I don't know what I did to deserve you guys, but you make my nonexistent heart feel warm. Oh, thanks to Reddish-can, who said that I'm not insane, but I'm "Walking in the street rather then the sidewalk, like me." God, that made my day. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, it all goes to Hiro Mashima. Thank god, because I can't draw.**

* * *

"Operation start," Levy whispered to the man next to her, careful to not lean in too close. They had just spent five minutes trying to detach her new nose ring from his black mane of hair, and though the piercings were fake, it was surprisingly painful for both of them when it gets suck on something. Gajeel nodded, giving her a once over and deciding Levy's new outfit was acceptable. They both watched eagerly from their hiding spot (which, of course, was a bush. 'What kind of spy operation are you in if you aren't hiding in a bush?' was Levy's reason), waiting for their two targets to arrive. A quick glance at her watch told the devious blunette that it was 10:59. As if on cue the two boys she was waiting for appeared out of thin air, looking around eagerly for their favorite person.

"They look like lost puppies," Gajeel chuckled, parting the leaves so he could watch them fight over who got to stand on either side of Levy. Apparently the right side was the place to be.

"Shut up," Levy covered her mouth to conceal her smile, "they're really nice guys!"

"Then why are you trying to drive them away?" He questioned.

"They're too nice," she sighed, crawling out of the bush. She had forgotten that she was wearing a skirt, so Gajeel got a nice look at her underwear. Though he tried to convince himself otherwise, we all know that he was totally enjoying the view and he was just in denial.

But, anyway, back to their mission.

"Hey, guys!" Levy called out to her two suitors. The goofy men spun around excitedly and started to run over to the girl. However, once they registered the giant, scary man that the girl had attached to her side, they actually stopped to look at her. At the moment, Levy was showing off a brand new leather jacket, resting on top of a dark purple t-shirt that was advertising some obscure screamo band. As previously mentioned she was also wearing a black skirt which was coupled with knee high leather boots. Ah, and let's not forget her new piercings! Her ears were now dotted with black studs that matched the one on her eyebrow, nose and, when she talked, her tongue.

In essence, she had become an alternate persona: Black Levy. All the spunk of normal Levy mixed with all of the danger of drunk Levy! Basically, the scariest thing mankind has ever seen.

"Levy," Jet paled.

"You look...different," Droy wore a similar look. They flashed their eyes over to the towering mass of muscle who was smirking at them. Gajeel threw his arm over Levy's shoulder and started to laugh at their shocked expressions.

"Guys, this is Gajeel. My boyfriend," Levy awkwardly shuffled closer to the man and smiled at them. The two boys gaped openly at her. Levy has a...boyfriend? A scary monster of a human at that.

"Levy," Jet started nervously, "You know that the dark side lied about the cookies, right?"

"We may have lied about the cookies, but there's something even better," Gajeel winked at the two and started dragging his 'girlfriend' away. "Later, then!" He called over his shoulder. Levy tried to turn and wave, but Gajeel grabbed her hand and shot her a look. She nodded slightly and, when she saw that Jet and Droy weren't looking anymore, pushed Gajeel back into the bushes. From there the odd couple army crawled back to the spot where they could hear their targets.

"Droy, you know what this means, right?" Jet asked seriously. Levy and Gajeel crowded closer, eager to hear their words of defeat. If they gave up now, Gajeel could go back to being a free man again. Well, as free as a poor entertainer could be, anyway.

"Cry ourselves to sleep and buy some cats," Droy nodded and stared in the direction Levy had exited.

"No you idiot! We have to save Levy from that beast!" Jet slapped his friend over the head.

"Or that," Droy rubbed the spot and followed Jet out of the park. The two eavesdroppers fell forward and tumbled out of their hiding spot, scaring the shit out of some random jogger.

"Great, we just made it worse," Levy groaned, unable to resist the urge to face palm.

"Don't give up just yet, Shrimp," Gajeel chuckled evilly, "I have another plan."

"Does this one involve piercings?" She asked.

"No. Why?"

"I think some of my ear rings are stuck in my hair."

* * *

"Oh Natsu," Mira called out menacingly, "Gray, come on out!" Natsu and Gray looked at each other, terrified of the fate that had fallen upon them. A scratching at their door (okay, maybe it was a knock, but Mira is scary dammit!) alerted them to Mira's dreaded arrival. They dover under their couch, however nasty the experience is, right before she smashed the door open. Now, they were watching in horror Mirajane tore through their apartment looking for the two boys. Gajeel was a damn lucky bastard for escaping this white haired demon.

"Don't worry guys," Natsu heard Lisanna call, "I'm here too." Her words made the two boys sigh in relief. Mira was always calmer when her little sister was with her. Hopefully, Lisanna's presence will stop Mira from rearranging their faces for lying to her all these years.

"Gotcha," came a whisper from behind. Natsu squeaked as he felt claws digging into his heels, both him and Gray were dragged out to meet their doom. Mira looked absolutely terrifying, with her hair flying around in the dark aura that surrounded her, and she hadn't even transformed into her Satan soul yet.

"Hey, Mira," Gray laughed nervously, "fancy meeting you here!" Natsu laughed along with him, doing what he could to survive. He started to pray in his head to the so called 'Bacon God' Lucy was always ragging on about. _Dear Bacon God, please don't let Mira kill me. Lucy would be sad._

"Tell me," the demoness purred, "since when had you been working in the House?" Mira grabbed both of them by the throats. "And why did you not tell me?"

"Can't breathe Mira," Natsu choked out. Damn Bacon God was a freaking lie.

"Oh, and does it look like I care?" She laughed evilly. Holy shit, she was actually going to kill them. IT'S JUST A FIGURE OF SPEECH MIRA!

"Mira-nee, come on. They can't talk if they're dead," Lisanna reminded her sister with a somewhat amused tone. Her older sister nodded, agreeing that her victims were of no use to her dead, and let the two boys go. Natsu and Gray dropped to the floor gasping for breath.

"Sorry Mira," Gray gasped. "We didn't...tell you because...you would react like this..."

"We needed...the money," Natsu added. For a few minutes it was silent. They stared at her, she stared at them. It was a silent battle of the eyes, and Natsu wasn't quite sure who won or what was said or why Mira seemed to deflate and give up.

"Well, that's in the past now, I suppose," She mused.

Is she...giving up? Before either of them were punched in the face?

"Onto a more important topic! Natsu, what business do you have with my darling Lucy?" She was smiling at him, but underneath he could see a more sadistic look gleaming. This girl was having more mood swings then Jellal when he gets into a fight with his girlfriend.

"I'm helping her become a normal human being," he explained warily.

"Who's Lucy?" Lisanna cut in.

"She's a friend of mine- Hey! Lucy isn't that weird!" She snapped.

"She asked me," he shrugged.

"I don't believe you. She would've asked us, if anything," Mira huffed,

"I'm still confused here," Lisanna looked back and forth between Natsu and Mira, but neither of them threw her an explanation. They were too busy arguing about this mystery girl that Natsu is apparently spending time with. She was both curious and worried about this girl; Natsu had always been careful about who he was close to, so this girl had to be pretty darn special. However, if she was like the other girls Natsu usually came in contact with (I'm talking lusty, get in his pants type girls that frequent the house) then he was going to end up hurt.

And, you know. Lisanna kind of liked Natsu. Not just like, but she like-liked him. So if there was another girl in the picture, she wanted to know about her.

"Oh, that busty blonde!" Gray exclaimed. He too was at a loss in this sudden turn of conversation, but he was pretty sure he had heard the name Lucy before. Both Mira and Natsu turned to glare at him for interrupting their argument.

"Sexist pig!" Mira screamed. Okay, maybe Mira was mad about his comment, and Natsu was mad about interrupting the argument. Whatever it was, he felt their eyes pierce a hole through his brain, like a laser shot from some weird dragonoid thing. Wait, what is up with that simile? Totally random. Maybe Natsu's strange ways were finally rubbing off on him. Anyway, Gray army crawled over to Lisanna where it was safer, and the two people went back to their epic battle. Somehow, bacon had come into the mix.

"You know her?" Lisanna asked.

"Natsu's mentioned her before, and I saw her yesterday. Weird chick, from what I can tell," He shrugged. Burning curiosity took over her, and taking no time she asked the most important question.

"Is she pretty?" She asked timidly. She was very curious, but as they say, curiosity killed the cat. Or, in Lisanna's case, put the cat in the forever permanent friend zone. Though she knew that Natsu would hardly abandon her because of a pretty girl, but the picture she was painting in her head was overwhelming her.

"Yeah. Blonde, curvy, pretty. But, like I said, she's pretty strange. You can tell right away," Gray ducked as Natsu was thrown in his direction. Oh good, Mira started to beat him up. This was the perfect opportunity to escape.

"Later!" He yelled, sprinting out of his apartment before Mira could turn to grab him. Natsu glared after the traitor. So much for "Nakama power." But, the Bacon God finally answered (very late, he might add) Natsu's call, because instead of refocusing her rage on Natsu, Mira's phone went off. She quickly read the text and let out an excited squeal.

"Well, I'm done here. It's a good thing Lucy is friends with you!" Mirajane smiled brightly and grabbed her sister's arm, dragging the reluctant Lisanna from Natsu's apartment. "Oh, but Natsu," she abruptly stopped and slowly turned. Instead of the cheerful look from five seconds ago, she now wore an evil smile. "If you ever hurt her, I will tear off your limbs and feed them to a bunch of pigs. Later!" Mira finished her threat with an evil laugh and finally exited the room. Natsu collapsed onto his couch and groaned. When he met this girl, he didn't know she came with a horde of demons protecting her!

"Ugh," Natsu heard Gajeel's gruff voice groan. He picked up his head and watched Gajeel collapse to the floor.

"You don't even know the meaning of pain," Natsu hissed.

"Mira?"

"Mira."

* * *

"Hey, Mira-nee?" Lisanna tried to find a way to express what she wanted to say, "Do the guys seem different to you?"

"What do you mean Lisanna?" Mira asked, but judging my the knowing twinkle in her eye, she also noticed something was up.

"They just seem...like their old selves. Before the guild was closed, you know?"

"Yeah, I think so too," her sister smiled happily, chanting something under her breath. It sounded like she was saying 'Nalu'.

* * *

_This is it. Just put the letter in the mailbox, Lucy. You can do it. Come on. Just take a deep breath in and push open the slot. There we go. Now step away from the box- yes, it is illegal to break it so you can get the letter back. Step away. No strangeness. Natsu's teachings will go down the drain if you freak out now. _

As you can see, Lucy was very torn about sending her father a reply. Though she was touched at his genuine attempt to get some sort of word from his daughter, she couldn't bring herself to even want to forgive him; every time she considered it, it was like a flashback to the dark nights without a knight to fight away the monsters, and the lonely dinners with her at one end of the table and a maid on either side of her.

Her father had let her down. Time and time again, though he had every chance to make it up, he left her alone to rot in a never ending loneliness. And to think, his stupid reason was because she reminded him of her mother. It's his fault for giving her trust issues. But, there it was, a reply to him. Though it wasn't really much of a reply. All it said was, "Fine, I'll hear what you say for now. I'm not taking any more of your crap." But, hey, it was a start, right?

Lucy stepped away from the mailbox just in time for a man clothed only in boxers to run into her. She hit the ground hard and skidded a bit before coming to a stop.

"Sorry," the raven haired man panted, throwing a cautionary glance over his shoulder. He reached out his hand to help her up.

"It's ok- where are your clothes?" She disregarded his hand and got up herself, taking a couple of steps back when she did. Wait, he seemed familiar. Black hair, stripping...ah! Natsu's friend, Gray!

"Damn it!" He turned around and started for the direction he came in, but decided against it and started heading downtown. Huh, maybe he was late for work. Talking about work, she should talk to Natsu about payment. Heck, she should needed to go home and do her own job, first. Eh, let's kill two birds with one stone. Lucy grabbed her phone and dialed his number. Huh, that's weird. She had it memorized now...

"DEAR GOD MIRA, I'M NOT-" Natsu went into a giant yelling rant that was very heard to deciper. Something about girlfriends and being weird and, for a split second, Lucy's name popped up.

"Natsu?" Lucy cut him off when it sounded like he was going to have a heart attack. Natsu went silent.

"Oh, Lucy, thank God. I thought you were a demon announcing my death," he breathed a sigh of relief. Lucy wasn't sure if she should laugh at his pain or ask what he meant and why it involved Mira of all things, but instead she just ignored everything.

"...I'm going to choose to ignore this whole thing and restart."

"That would be wise."

"Come to my apartment ASAP."

"...so bold of you, Luce."

"What- oh, shut up!" Lucy started to blush. She did NOT think of him that way (well, she didn't really think of anyone that way, but especially him). Natsu was too...Natsu for her to think of him romantically. Seriously, the guy oozed 'nakama power', not 'I'll love you for eternity. Not like she wanted a sappy guy like that. No, she wanted a guy who could be just as weird as her, and could save her when she needed to be saved. A guy where she could jump off a tower and just because she though she heard his voice and still he caught in time.

"Kidding, kidding. Though come on, I'm sexy," he laughed. Lucy smiled as he unknowingly gave her an opportunity for revenge.

"Gray's sexier than you," she stated.

"I AM TEN TIMES THE SEXY MAN THEN THAT ICE SHIT FACE," he yelled, just as Lucy had predicted. It was so easy to insult him. It was kind of beautiful, actually. Lucy suddenly said her thanks to some person named Hiro Mashima. Wait, who's Hiro Mashima? Whoever he was, he sounded important.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night, Natsu." Lucy hung up and started for her apartment, smiling the whole way like an idiot. She didn't know how this happened, but she was more comfortable with this boy then with her own friends. He might not be her first friend, but he was possibly her first best friend.

**(In the bushes that were conveniently beside Lucy this entire time)**

"Love...rival? No, Lucy is a friend. Lucy is a friend. Friends are not rivals," Juvia argued with herself, and continued to do so until she realized that Gray-sama had already left. What the heck was with this man? Why is she resorting to creepy stalker tactics instead of just talking to him?

The only answer she could think of? Because it's Gray-sama.

**(convenient time skip that takes us right to Lucy's apartment. Wohoo!)**

"When I said come to my apartment," Lucy growled, stalking over to the boy that was currently relaxing on her couch, "I didn't mean, 'let yourself right in.'" She hit him in the back of the head.

"Geeze Luce, calm down," he rubbed the back of his head. "We're friends, aren't we?"

"Friends don't let friends become felons," she deadpanned.

"Whatever," he waved off the issue. "What am I doing here?"

"Killing two birds with one stone," Lucy walked over to a pile of possible letters to answer. She started shifting through them again. "I need to work, and I need to repay you."

"Hm...getting money straight up is so weird..." he scratched his head as he thought. "Can you cook?"

"Yeah," Lucy shivered as she remembered the cooking lessons she had to go through when she was little. Though the chef was a jolly old man who she loved dearly, when it came to teaching he became an all powerful overlord. Lucy was exceptional at everything she did, but that just made the chef even harder on her. Luckily, the girl still remembered how to make a lot of the foods served in her home.

"You can cook me and my friends some food. We're off on Friday."

"Okay then," He walked over to her window and opened it. "Later," he jumped through. Judging by the surpised gasps coming from outside, he was able ot land perfectly fine. Still, Lucy walked over to the window and stuck her head out just to make sure. There he was, the crazy boy staring up at her with a wicked smile.

"TRY USING THE DOOR, YOU IDIOT!" She screamed, and slammed the window closed before he could answer.

* * *

**And that concludes this chapter. I'll give you a hint about next time: Make new friends, but keep the old, try not dying by food for the soul- wait, that isn't how the song goes. Hmmmm...**

**But, we see some things come together! And yeah, next chapter will hopefully be a crazy one where everyone comes together in one place. Muah ha ha, the things I have planned. That's a lie, I have nothing planned. We'll just have to see what my crazy mind thinks up.**

**There's actually only a few lessons left, but they'll be stretched over a couple of chapters. **

**Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I'd say sorry for it being another filler, but really, everything in here is a filler. **

**Until next time, my lovely readers. **

**~NeverMakesSense **


	13. A dinner to remember

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINNA!**

…

"**What is this new nonsense you're spewing NeverMakesSense?" You ask? **

**Well, today is my birthday. But, in an attempt to reject the fact that I only have one more month to do my homework for the summer (English, how I hate and love you), and also that my family and friends might had tried to make this a big deal (screw sweet 16's!), I'm trying to pretend today isn't my birthday! Instead, I'm going to pretend today is your birthday, dear readers, and thus I give you this (hopefully good) chapter as a gift to your not getting older. Unless today is your birthday as well. Then PM me and I can freak out that I actually share this day with someone else!**

"**That makes absolutely no sense," you scoff. To which I answer, "Why do you think my user name is NeverMakesSense?"**

**So yeah, this is the result of my denial. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I asked Hiro Mashima to give me ownership of Fairy Tail for my birthday, but he never answered. Until then, I own nothing.**

Oh yeah, also: A person said that they were confused, so I'm going to assume that there were other people who were confused as well. So, I'm going to quickly explain the boy's situation:

Guilds are gone, so a lot of wizards are screwed and out of a job, making the boys settle with working in the House of Aces until they are older and no longer attractive. Then they can, I don't know, sell kittens on the side of the street? I saw a hobo in the city doing that once.

* * *

"Natsu," Lucy's eyebrow twitched, "I thought I was cooking for a couple of people, not a freaking roomful!" She stepped towards the boy wielding a ladle as her weapon. She was very, very close to murdering him.

"Come on, Luce. Calm down," he laughed nervously.

"Calm down? You shove a freaking flying, talking cat in my face and sacrifice me to a room full of hungry people that I didn't even know was expecting me, and you want me to calm down?" She shouted, reaching out to grab his neck so she could choke the lying bastard.

"It's not like I'm leaving you alone. I'll help," he evaded her attacks, leaving the two dancing around the kitchen in a quest for survival and revenge.

"No, I'll do it myself. A promise is a promise," Lucy sighed. Technically, she made a promise, and her mother always taught her to keep her promises. No matter how impossible the promise it was. Plus, she wasn't sure that Natsu was that good of a cook besides bacon and coffee, and since Mira wasn't there (why must she go to a party when Lucy needed her the most?) it looked like she was on her own.

Ah, you're confused again, aren't you? Lets go back a bit...

(Earlier that evening)

Lucy tapped her foot nervously as she stood in front of Natsu's door. She didn't know if she should knock, or just wait for him to come outside, or just wait for the door to open on it's own- wait, the door is opening on it's own. Huh, guess that was the right answer.

"Oh, you must be that Lucy chick," the man who opened the door mused. He was huge, towering over Lucy and installing a bit of fear in her. Okay, maybe it was more than a bit of fear. He was one of Natsu's friends? What, does the pink haired idiot run with delinquents too? Oh god, he probably burned down their storehouse and now he had to run with them- wait, stop overactive imagination! Natsu couldn't be stuck with a bunch of drug addicts. Anyway, the man leaned in closer, making her shake a little bit. Considering he was basically a mass of muscle, hair and metal piercings, can you blame her?

"Geeze Gajeel, stop scaring her," Lucy almost cried tears of joy as Natsu grabbed the back of the man's neck and pulled him back into the apartment. Gesturing her to come inside, Lucy timidly stepped in and made her way around the small apartment to the kitchen where she was apparently going to cook. She put the food she had brought on the table and began to ready herself for her mission.

"Don't make yourself too comfortable, Luce. We're going to leave soon," Natsu called out.

Um...what?

"What?" She twirled around to stare at him. The boy was already grabbing his coat and calling out for the other people in the house to get ready. The scary man from before, Gajeel, started to laugh at the surprised look on her face.

"We're going to Fairy Tail," a small voice beside her explained. Lucy looked down and saw a blue (is that natural?) cat sitting at her feet.

"Ha ha, funny Natsu," she said dryly, picking up the adorable cat. He started to purr in her arms.

"Oh, that wasn't Natsu," the cat yawned, "that was me."

Holy shit, did this cat just talk? Lucy looked around the room to find all of the boys staring eagerly at her, waiting to see what she would do. Well, Natsu had a look of worry, but the other two (especially that sketchy metal faced Gajeel) shared similar faces of amusement. Lucy held up the cat and looked it in the face.

"You can talk," she deadpanned. She didn't expect an answer.

"Aye sir!" He smiled. Yup, this cat could actually speak. What next, it could fly too?

"Well then," Lucy set the talking cat down and walked over to a large pot she had brought with her.

"Are you okay, Lucy?" Natsu asked warily. She could hear the other two suppressing their laughter.

"One moment please," she asked curtly, turning back to the pot, opening the lid and sticking her head in it before screaming as loud as she possibly could. After a few seconds she quickly closed the pot and turned back around. They stared at her (even the cat) and she stared back. Absolute silence until Gajeel started to guffaw loudly.

"I like you," he laughed. Lucy smiled tentatively and looked at the other guy, Gray. She shrieked and Natsu came up behind her and covered her eyes.

"Where are your clothes?" She cried.

"Shit," Gray discovered that she was right. There was a squirting sound. "Gajeel, what the hell? Why did you squirt me with water?"

"Get rid of your bad habit," Gajeel chuckled evilly.

"I'M NOT HAPPY DAMMIT!"

"Just go get dressed."

"Let's go," Natsu whispered in her ear. They grabbed her cooking materials and walked out, leaving the still arguing men behind. Happy flew out ahead of them, and when the girl saw that her joking suspicions were correct she fainted. Only for a brief second, and thankfully all that you could see as evidence was a slight stumble in her walk. Natsu smirked over at her with knowing eyes. Damn dragon slayers and their advanced senses.

They walked in silence until the other two boys were able to catch up. Then the air was filled with insults (if calling Gray an ice face could really count as an insult) and laughter. The more surprising event was that Lucy was actually involved in the whole thing. For once, she felt comfortable joking around with some people she had never really met before. She wasn't sure if it was because they were just easy to get along with or if she had Natsu by her side, but it was something that made her realize for the first time that she really _was_ changing. Once she realized that, Lucy had a giant smile on her face that wouldn't go away.

Well, until they got to Fairy Tail, anyway. The building some how looked more lively then when Natsu and Lucy had visited during the night. The paint seemed less faded and the ivy didn't look so threatening and there was just this happy atmosphere that made you feel like you were home.

"Hey everybody!" Natsu slammed the doors open and was welcome with a chorus of 'hey' and 'what's up?' and even 'STOP BEING SO RECKLESS YOU FOOL!'.

"This is Fairy Tail?" Lucy wondered. It was full of a reasonable amount of children (I mean, it's a freaking orphanage and all), but there were also a bunch of adults lazing around and drinking in the back. A girl that was cradling a barrel of alcohol particularly caught her attention.

Was she supposed to cook for all these people?

"NATSU! GAJEEL! GRAY! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU- oh, hello young lady," a very short old man came up to them screaming, but once he noticed Lucy standing among the group of boys he abruptly stopped. Well, that was a quick turnaround. Lucy shot her eyes over to her three companions to see them suppressing victorious smiles. It appears that they had used her as a shield.

"Hi, I'm Lucy," she greeted shyly. There were a few whistles as the older people in the room took a notice of her. She probably shouldn't of worn a short skirt today. Natsu stepped next to her so he was slightly in front of her, like a shield.

"Nice to meet you. I am Makarov, the master of Fairy Tail," he smiled widely. "Please ignore the idiots in the back, they have no better place to be then annoying an old man."

"Lucy is going to cook tonight!" Natsu yelled. The younger children cheered and thanked an invisible god that they didn't have to eat anything else Makarov made.

"Ungrateful brats," the old man muttered. He walked back over to where two other adult men were and started laughing and drinking with them. By the smile he wore on his face, Makarov wasn't annoyed in the slightest. Natsu started to push Lucy into the kitchen (which generated some calls of 'holy shit, Natsu brought a girl home?' from the older people, and the younger ones kept on staring at her, wondering if she was a princess) while Gajeel and Gray went over and started to fight with a couple of the older kids. For a second, Lucy saw a flash of blue hair hiding behind a post that she thought belonged to Wendy Marvel. But, she couldn't confirm her suspicions because Natsu pulled open a door and shoved her into a small kitchen.

Lucy then remembered the irritated feeling she had when they first arrived. She picked up the most threatening thing she could find and turned on him.

"Natsu," Lucy's eyebrow twitched, "I thought I was cooking for a couple of people, not a freaking roomful!" She stepped towards the boy wielding a ladle as her weapon. She was very, very close to murdering him.

"Come on, Luce. Calm down," he laughed nervously.

"Calm down? You shove a freaking flying, talking cat in my face and sacrifice me to a room full of hungry people that I didn't even know was expecting me, and you want me to calm down?" She shouted, throwing the ladle on a counter, instead reaching out to grab his neck so she could choke the lying bastard.

"It's not like I'm leaving you alone. I'll help," he evaded her attacks, leaving the two dancing around the kitchen in a quest for survival and revenge. Lucy stopped when she realized she would never be able to catch up to him. This chase was beginning to feel like exercise. Ew.

"No, I'll do it myself. A promise is a promise," Lucy sighed. Technically, she made a promise, and her mother always taught her to keep her promises. No matter how impossible the promise it was. Plus, she wasn't sure that Natsu was that good of a cook besides bacon and coffee (which are almost impossible to mess up), and since Mira wasn't there (why must she go to a party when Lucy needed her the most?) it looked like she was on her own. "I'm going to need more food though."

"There's a fridge over there," he pointed to an ancient machine that was the source of a loud thrumming sound. She walked over and looked inside. Well, since she was cooking for a lot of people she could just make some stew...

"Hey, Natsu...?" Lucy whirled around to find the room completely empty. The wooden door to the main hall was still slowly closing. "Deserter," she grumbled. Oh sure, he was totally planning on helping. Natsu may look and act like an idiot, but that boy was very good at making manipulative plans. She didn't know if she should be impressed that he had a brain or annoyed because this is the second time that night he used her.

Well, no use thinking about it. Lucy cracked her knuckles and started to chop some vegetables.

(I know nothing about cooking, so we'll take this time to look at something else!)

"Hey Gramps!" Natsu called out to get the old man's attention. He felt bad about leaving Lucy alone to cook, but there was a more important matter he had to take care of.

"What is it boy?" Makarov asked, but it looked like he already knew what Natsu wanted to discuss.

"I have a favor to ask."

"Let's hear it then."

(Hm, more mystery. Whoops. Anyway, back to the kitchen!)

She couldn't do this. Lucy thought she could, but the second the actual cooking started she found herself running around the kitchen like a madwoman. Well, she was a little insane, but that is not the point! She felt like it was hopeless; things were burning and she spilled some sauce on herself and god dammit, this was stew, so why was it turning into a disaster?

"Dear Bacon God, help me!" She prayed frantically. There was a golden flash through the room and a soft poof sound. Lucy let out a scream, watching the smoke clear with both terror and excitement. The Bacon God finally answered her prayers! HE TOTALLY EXISTS! TAKE THAT, VEGITARIANS OF FIORE!

"Puunnnn~," the smoke cleared to reveal none other then Plue. Lucy stared at him in disbelief. How did he get here? Lucy felt around in her pockets, pulling out his key when she found it. She must have grabbed it in her nervous frenzy of getting ready, knowing she would feel safer if she had one of her keys with her. But still, how did he get here?

"Uh, Lucy? You okay?" Natsu poked his head in the room. "Wait, was Plue always here?"

"I summoned him," she gasped. Plue was a weak spirit, there was no way he came on his own power. But...that was impossible.

"I thought you said you couldn't use magic anymore," Natsu was just as confused as she was.

"I can't. The Angel took it away," Lucy saw his confused expression and decided to explain. "When I was ten some men kidnapped me. They worked with this lady who was always talking about how she was an angel, and one day she got bored and sealed away my ability to use magic."

She remembered that day very well. The woman always dressed up in these feathery clothes, and every day she boasted how pretty she was because she was an angel, and how Lucy was going to go to hell because she was making an angel waste her time on a kidnapping. They were all pissed at the lack of response from her father, even Lucy herself. You're daughter is taken away, you get asked for ransom, and you freaking ignore it? The last day she was kept the woman broke, and she sealed her magic away.

The woman was _bored. _Lucy couldn't see her spirits ever again because some sadistic bitch had nothing to do. And yet, here we are, with Plue looking up at Lucy like he was ready to help. Could it be that she was getting her magic back? Lucy looked over at Natsu and saw the most intense look of anger and hatred on his face.

"That's horrible," he hissed.

"It seems like I'm getting it back though," She smiled, holding up Plue as proof. Natsu calmed down and smiled back. Lucy heard something start to bubble.

"SHIT!"

* * *

"That wasn't nice, Angel-sama," Lackey #1 chuckled at the picture in the lacrima. Their blonde target was fanning something on the stove and cursing while her annoying pink haired companion was trying to help by putting the whole thing on fire.

"What? I'm just giving her a sense of hope," Angel's innocent voice was like honey, sweet but sticky, "well, false hope, that is," she started to laugh, watching the girl throw that spirit Angel summoned at the boy's face. He ducked and the spirit's nose was lodged in the wall. She pulled it out of the wall and tried again. This time it was a direct hit into the boy's forehead.

"When are we going to get her?" Lackey #2 quivered with excitement. He wanted to play with the blonde again. Her screams were so lovely last time.

"A little while longer. We have to tread carefully if we are going to defy _him_," She smashed the lacrima and started to walk away. Her two followers scrambled after her. Their insane laughter filled the quiet air with malice and mischief.

Lucy watched everyone eat in complete awe. The conversation and laughter had abruptly but off as soon as she rolled out a large pot full of stew. They all started to stampede towards her, making Natsu grab her by the waist and pull her out of the way before she was trampled by the hungry crowd. Before she could turn around and say a thank you the boy let her go and joined the feeding frenzy. Now they were all quietly stuffing their faces. It was both fascinating and disgusting.

"You can never say they aren't thankful," Makarov popped up beside her. She nodded and pushed her own empty bowl aside. The old man tilted his head towards an office in the back and hopped off his chair. She followed him into the old office, getting nervous when he shut the door behind her.

"Don't be so nervous my dear," he hopped up onto a large leather chair (which looked so funny compared to his small body size) and gestured her to do the same.

"Is there something you want to ask me, sir?" She asked tentatively.

"You have been spending a lot of time with Natsu," he stated.

"Is that a problem?"

"No, of course not. Natsu is a grown boy now, I can't control him," they both laughed at that, "but I still have to ask you something."

"Okay."

"My children have been through a lot in their short time. Natsu's generation especially. The guilds closed down and there isn't work for them. You see what they do now," he waited for her to nod before continuing, "they have been let down since their parents abandoned them. But lately I've seen a bit of change in them. Natsu especially."

"I don't really follow you."

"I am beating around the bush, aren't I?" He chuckled to himself, looking out the small window in his door as he did so. Lucy could hear the noise start to resurface in the main room again, signaling that everyone was done stuffing their faces. The voice she could hear over all others was Natsu's arguing tone. He was fighting with Gray again. "Are you going to leave him?" Makarov tilted his head towards the door. "When you finally get what you want, will you abandon him just like his father did?"

So Natsu had daddy issues too, huh?

"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea," she answered in a steely tone, "but I'm not some shallow bitch that runs through guys like hair dye. I cherish my friends, not abandon them."

It was silent. Inside, she was horrified of her behavior in front of the old man, but it was how she felt. She loved her friends, and somehow the insane pink head wiggled his way into being one of them. Makarov gave her a piercing stare, as if he was trying to look into her soul. Apparently he liked what he saw, because the old man broke out into a huge smile that took over most of his face.

"I like you," he laughed, "you have spunk."

"Thanks," Lucy smiled. The door to the small office slammed open and in walked Natsu himself.

"What are you doing in here? It's more fun outside!" He grabbed her hand and started to drag her out towards a large group of smiling people. She looked over her shoulder and saw that, somehow, the old man was smiling even bigger than before.

* * *

Erza Scarlet was tired of working for Laxus Dreyer. The man was mean and a pervert, and his other two body guards practically worshiped the ground he walked on, which annoyed her immensely. It wasn't really his behavior that bothered her, though; the girl had worked for plenty of men like him. It was the fact that one, he was very powerful (she could tell by the waves of magical energy coming off of him) so he didn't even need a bodyguard, much less three (in fact, he had her mostly doing paperwork for him. Cretin) and two, he kept secrets from her. They all tried to hide it, but she had heard whispered conversations and seen them all disappear for a length of time. No wonder the last guy quit. Right now, she was trying to finish as quickly as she could so she could go home and hopefully catch her boyfriend in time. Outside she could hear the laughter of her coworkers.

"Hey, Laxus says he wants another report from the House," Erza heard Bixlow whisper. Well, the man tried to whisper, but he was so loud that it came out at normal volume. Erza went up to the door and laid her ear on it, just to make sure she heard every word.

"I'll go tonight," Evergreen said in a quieter tone. Go where? The House? Wait, she had been sorting through a bunch of documents and saw that name. The House of Aces. "Though Laxus shouldn't worry. Those fools don't know anything."

"I'll see you later then," She heard Bixlow's footsteps stomp away, then a lighter pair that told her Evergreen had departed as well. Running to her desk, Erza grabbed her coat and bag and ran after the two. It was time she paid a visit to this House of Aces.

* * *

**Wow, I think this is the longer chapter yet! Look at you guys go, getting a double birthday present! I hope this explained some things, but if you are still confused PM me and I'll try to explain as best I can. **

**Hm, I still feel Nalu deprived though. Next chapter will have to fix that. I'm thinking getting Lucy drunk. Thoughts?**

**Remember to leave a review! Later guys!**

**~NeverMakesSense**


	14. Drinks and Plans

**Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews, favorites and alerts. You're so good to me :)  
**

**If you didn't see, I posted a new story called, "Lucy's Happily Ever After." It's a light, funny (I hope, but my humor is lost on people usually) about Lucy trying to get a happy ending for herself be going through a bunch of fairy tails. But, Natsu keeps on ruining her plan! Sound interesting? Wanna go check it out?**

**Okay, onto the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: For the 14th time...I OWN NOTHING!**

* * *

If there was one thing Natsu learned that night, it was to never get Lucy drunk. Under any circumstances. Just say no and all that. Not only did she stumble and slur her words and act like a complete idiot (which was pretty funny to watch, actually. Lucy always had an air of intellectual superiority around her, so seeing her act stupid for one was amusing), but she was really...affectionate? Natsu wasn't sure how to express her drunk persona; for half the night she hugged him tightly, so tight that there were a couple of points in time where he passed out a little from lack of oxygen, but duing the other half she was crying from any rejection she received. Natsu pushed her away so he could breath? Tears. Natsu refusing to carry her to the bathroom? Tears. Natsu refusing to- hey, why was he the only one making her cry?

…

…

Actually, let us ignore that question and go back to the present. At the moment the emotional blonde was clinging to Cana and crying that she didn't want to go home without her new best friend. Said 'new best friend' patted her head affectionately and gave her more sake to drink. It took the combined force of Natsu, Gray and Gajeel to peel her off. Cana was just laughing like the insane, drunken maniac she was while the whole thing happened.

"But Natsuuu~" Lucy complained, "I don't wanna go!" She struggled in his grasp, making him sigh. Why did she have to be even more difficult when she was drunk? Couldn't she just be a sleepy drunk or a shy drunk or, hey, not be drunk AT ALL? Who was the one who gave her alcohol in the first place?

Oh wait, that would be him. Hmmm...

"Come on. I'm taking you home," Natsu grunted, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. He shouted a good bye to everyone as he walked out while Lucy waved her hands and hiccuped uncontrollably. Happy didn't follow him, saying something about Carla and fish.

Once they entered the cool night air, Natsu flipped the girl into his arms so that he was carrying her bridal style. He walked in silence, the only sound being his footsteps on the cobblestone street and the soft swish of Lucy's skirt, hoping that if he stayed quiet enough she would fall asleep. When they arrived at her building, he thought he heard soft snores. Stiffling a victory screech, he entered her apartment, using the door for once, and set Lucy down on her bed. As Natsu started to tip toe away he felt something tug on his shirt.

Oh no.

"Where ya goin', Natssu?" She slurred, sitting up in her bed and pulling him closer. Wow, she was really drunk if she wasn't following standard English. Lucy tended to be a grammar freak; if anyone messed up in their speech, she was quick to correct them. It was one of her annoying, but endearing, traits. Now she looked up at him with half lidded eyes and a lopsided smile. The look was making him feel uncomfortable; there was a certain look in her eyes that looked horrifyingly familiar.

But, no, Lucy wasn't like that. She was different from the others, wasn't she?

"Go to sleep Luce," He pushed her back down and tried to lessen the grip she had on his shirt. Damn, he might just have to tear the fabric. He liked this shirt too.

"No, I'm not tired!" She whined like a little kid. Natsu sighed as he realized the role he had to take on. Babysitter Natsu to the rescue. God, he was going to need some coffee. Lots and lots of coffee with Tabasco sauce.

"Stay," he ordered the drunk, who in return sat up and saluted him. Feeling uneasy about leaving her alone, Natsu tucked the sheets around her, making movement almost impossible. Then, he walked off into the kitchen and started to help himself to some coffee (read: Gift from the gods) and food. In her room he could hear footsteps, making him wonder what the heck she was doing. Hadn't he left her tucked in bed? With that thought he dashed out of the kitchen and into the bedroom.

"Natsu," her voice was muffled. Probably because she was wrapped, from head to toe in her bed sheets. "Help me."

Resist the urge to laugh. Resist the urge to laugh. Resist- oh, to hell with it. Natsu burst out laughing at her, leaving her to struggle to free herself. He watched, amused, for a another couple of minutes before he finally decided to help. She was very close to her bedside table and was probably going to knock it down sooner rather then later.

"Oi, stop squirming," he grunted, trying to keep a firm hold on her wiggling form as he picked her up and tossed her on the bed before getting to work on untangling her from the sheets. He briefly wondered how she was able to twist herself up this bad in such a short span of time. It took a lot of rolling Lucy around and almost ripping her sheets before he was able to free her upper body.

But, since this is Natsu's life here, something else had to happen, right?

"WHY ARE YOU NAKED?" He screamed, staring at her bare chest.

"It's hot," she fanned herself with her hand. Natsu found himself unable to take his eyes off of the effect the motion had on her chest. Lucy noticed this and laughed at his mesmerized expression. "Ha ha, Natsu's a pervert!"

"I am not," he abruptly turned around.

"Then why were you looking at my boobs?"

"Shut up and go to sleep."

"Pervert, Pervert, Natsu is a pervert!"

"SLEEP CHILD!"

Natsu's ears pricked at the sudden silence. He slowly turned around, keeping his eyes closed and listening intently. He could hear her soft breathing in front of him. Thinking she was asleep, he opened his eyes.

Unless Lucy sleeps standing up with her eyes open, then no. She was not asleep.

"Thanks, Natsu," she whispered, planting herself so close to him that he could count her eyelashes if he wanted. Rising on the tips of her toes and planting her hands on his shoulders, Lucy placed a quick kiss on his lips.

"For what?" He asked, dazed. Oh my god, was he blushing? What the heck, he did this kind of thing all the time!

"For not being a bad guy," she smiled so happily, a light blush dusting her cheeks, but underneath the dazed look in her eyes Natsu could see it. A sad look that would even make Elfman cry like a little girl. It disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, and with a little smile and a stagger in her step, Lucy went back to her bed and instantly fell asleep.

Natsu stared at Lucy as she slept, ignoring the intense feeling of creepiness as he did so. The girl was like a puzzle; as he discovered more pieces of her past, her whole being started to click together. Though he definitely did not enjoy the picture her past made. The huge bomb she had dropped earlier in the day almost made him go insane, if it wasn't for the fact that Lucy seemed kind of skittish around men (much less a very angry Natsu) and Makarov's threat of punishing him with _that_ if he ever destroyed Fairy Tail property again. So yes, he actually swallowed down the intense killing urges inside of him, choosing to imagine the deaths of her past captors.

But, that wouldn't really be fair, would it? Lucy should be the one to take them down, after all. Which meant he had to finish his job, because it seemed like it was helping her get her power back. He was going to make sure any influence they had over her is gone. And then, when they both finally get her back to her normal self, they'll-

They'll what?

"Ne, Lucy? When you're all normal and stuff, what will happen?" Natsu looked at her sleeping face, looking so innocent in the soft moonlight that streamed in through the window. Well, there was no answer coming from her any time soon. Figuring his job was done for the night, he scooted off the bed and started to walk to the door.

"Natsu," A hand grabbed his wrist, "you'll stay with me, won't you?"

"For tonight?" He turned, seeing the sudden stressed look on her face. It didn't belong with the rest of her pretty features. It was like that game when we were little, "What thing is not like the other?"

"For forever," she mumbled softly, clenching his wrist tighter until he walked over and sat next to her on the bed.

He was never going to get her drunk ever again.

* * *

Erza dove behind another couch. Why was she taking cover behind furniture, you ask? Well, because the second she arrived at the House of Aces she was attacked by three gorgeous men. While they were nice, in both personality and looks, they were very...clingy. One tried to be cute and acted like a little kid, one was tsundere and the last was overly charming. After being under their three-way attack for five minutes the red head couldn't take it anymore.

Oh yeah, and she had a boyfriend.

Anyway, they were getting to be too annoying and wouldn't take no for an answer, so she had to resort to cowardly hiding. It wasn't like she could sucker punch any of them in this big of a crowd. That would draw attention to herself and destroy her mission. Which was not going well, by the way. She tailed Evergreen to the House and followed her to the bar, but the only thing she had been doing for the past hour is laugh at the antics of some huge, muscular guy. Nothing too sketchy. Though when she looked at him a second time, he kind of looked like Mira's brother Elfman...

"Er-chan! There you are!" The charming one ducked down next to her. Stifling a groan, she stood up and turned to face the sparkling man. Literally, she could see something glittering in the air around him.

"Hello...again..." she shot a look over to the bar where Evergreen was sitting, narrowing her eyes when she spotted a new addition to the setting. A man with light green hair was sitting next to her. Though they weren't looking at each other, Erza's experienced gaze could spot their moving lips. "If you'll excuse me," Erza slipped past Hibiki and headed towards the bar. Nothing was going to distract her this time. Nothing-

"Gray-sama!"

_Juvia? No, must focus! But, is it really Juvia? I have to check..._ Erza looked over to find her blue haired friend drooling over some shirtless man with black hair. He looked at her with a mixture of annoyance and amusement, wrapping an arm around her shoulders but turning to talk to the other girls crowding around him. The girl practically had hearts popping out of her eyes at the action, blushing profusely and giggling at what he said.

This was probably the happiest Erza had seen Juvia in a very long time. After being under such stress from planning the wedding to Lyon's treachery, she was surprised the girl could smile as much as she was next to this mysterious 'Gray-sama'. So, Erza didn't have to kick this man's butt. Today, anyway. She still had to pay Lyon a little 'visit.'

Wait, she was getting distracted! Erza looked back at the bar, sighing in relief when she saw that her target was still talking to the green haired man. Determined, Erza stealthily made her way over to the bar and was able to hear the last snippets of their conversation.

"How many more do we need?" She heard the green haired man ask.

"Laxus says another three or four will do. And the fairies don't know anything?"

"No, they're clueless about the movement in the underground."

"Good. I'll come back soon for another report." Evergreen got up quickly, barely giving Erza time to blend into the crowd to stay hidden. Luckily, Evergreen didn't even give a glance in her direction, making her way quickly to the door. The man she had talked too slipped away just as easily, leaving Erza with no answers, just more questions. Underground? More of what? And what do fairies have to do with it?

"Er-chan! Er-chan!"

And she was going to figure it out. Right after she escaped from the deadly trio that was closing in on her.

* * *

**Okay, I'm very sorry. I had an epic battle with writing this chapter. It gave me extreme writers block. Like, I literally couldn't even look at it for a week. I'm so, so sorry if it sounds awkward or fake. I tried guys, I really did. I tried so hard to keep it in character. I'm also very sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I wanted to save the morning after for next chapter and there wasn't really anything else to put in this one, but I'll try to get that up as soon as I can. The other reason why this took me so long is because I was trying to finish my summer homework so I could actually enjoy the month of August, but that didn't happen. I'm still not done and I have 9 days of summer left. So, that denial wasn't healthy either. **

**So, to sum up this giant paragraph that I know about half of you didn't bother to read, I AM SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME. **

**So, if you want to yell at me, leave a review. Or two. Or five. However many you want. **

**Till next time (which will hopefully be in a week).**

**~NeverMakesSense**


	15. The morning after

**Hey guys! Sorry this took so long. I started up school, so that took some time away from me. Plus, I had to re-write the entire beginning to this chapter. I also spent time time watching Hetalia, SAO and Blue exorcist dubs, some Blue Exorcist manga, and I found out that Blue Exorcist also has a movie! WHY DID NO ONE ALERT ME OF THIS?! I'm waiting for the dub because I'm too lazy to watch it with subs. Though Rin's voice in the dub annoys me at first. So does Kirito's in SAO.  
**

**Sorry, this doesn't pertain to Fairy Tail at all, does it? So yeah, sorry kids. Also, for those who read my other Fairy Tail fanfiction (Lucy's Happily Ever After, in case you don't know) I'm not sure what fairy tale to do next. So, if you have a suggestion, PM/ review! Not Rapunzel though, I think I want to save that one for later...or any of the long stories...**

**Okay, I'm done ranting here.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail. If I did, we would all be dead from immense Nalu feels.**

* * *

Lucy woke up hot and hungover. She wasn't sure which was worse; feeling like she was dropped into hell to suffer without a hot butler named Sebastian or the fact that her stomach was initiating a full on rebellion against the rest of her body. Her pillow was really uncomfortable too, like the feathers inside of it were replaced with some weird, fleshy material. That was actually the most annoying problem for her, since her pillow was usually so comfortable. So, naturally, she tried to punch her pillow to make it softer.

And then it started to move.

"The hell?" A voice groaned. Lucy's eyes flashed open in time to see Natsu rubbing a red spot on his chest. Something tightened around her back and she was pulled closer to him, if that was even possible. She was practically glued to him already, with his arm around her back and her head on his chest and barely a millimeter of space between the two of them, though Natsu was on top of her covers for some reason. Lucy was frozen, staring at their position but not really knowing what it means. She suffered from severe morning stupidity; her brain took a couple of minutes to turn on. So, she waited in silence for her thoughts to collect, and then...

"WHAT THE HELL NATSU YOU PERVERT!" Lucy fell out of her bed, bringing the pink haired lecher and her bedsheets with her. Her face felt like it was on fire and her heart was beating rapidly as she tried to scramble to get up and away from him, but her sheets were tightly wound around her legs and didn't allow for much movement. She attributed the strange, light headed feeling to the fact that she was in a freaking cocoon. So, she started pulling at the sheets to loosen them.

"Wait, no!" Natsu hopped on top of her, but it was too late. The sheets slipped off to reveal her bare skin to the cool air of the apartment. Lucy shrieked and slapped his face, the force of which made him roll across her floor like a tumble weed in the desert wind.

"Natsu," she hissed, gathering the sheets around her and giving him a deadly glare, "can you tell me where my clothes are?"

"I swear on my bacon it wasn't me!" He threw his hands in the air while starting to inch towards the door. Lucy moved in front of the escape route and crossed her arms menacingly.

"I'm going to-" Lucy's threat was cut short by a sudden knocking on her door. Natsu took this opportunity to run past her towards freedom, yelling something about a witness and murder. Not thinking about her appearance, Lucy followed him.

"Natsu?" A voice asked, surprised. Curiously, Lucy stepped up next to Natsu, forgetting that she was mad at him in the first place, and found her mail girl clutching yet another crisp envelope in her hands.

"Lisanna?" Natsu breathed. Lucy looked back and forth between the two, trying to find a connection. She'd say friends, but there was a certain look in his eyes that made her want to say no. If they were friends, then why were his eyes so tortured right now? And why was she looking so sad?

"What are you doing here?" The girl asked, shooting a quick glance at Lucy. Actually, she sent multiple glances at Lucy. The first one was to see if she was there, and the others were to see if Lucy was, in fact, clad in only a bed sheet.

"It's not what it looks like. Please, don't tell Mira," he begged.

"Okay," she seemed unsure, like she wanted more of an explanation. Lucy sure did. "Well, this is for you," Lisanna handed Lucy the letter and before the blonde could respond she was speed walking down the hall. Well, that was weird.

"Who was that?" Lucy wondered.

"A friend," Natsu shrugged and pointed at the letter, "What's that?"

"Nothing!" Lucy shoved the precious letter behind her back. She felt guilty hiding it from Natsu, the person she was beginning to trust more then her long time friends, but it was just for her and, frankly, none of his business. That's what she told herself, at least. There was still an ember of guilt burning in the back of her mind.

"Okay then...Later!" Natsu sprinted down the hall. Lucy briefly wondered why he was so quick to run away. But then, she remembered that she was about to kill him before this girl had arrived. Racing into her room, Lucy put on the first pieces of clothing her fingers touched and ran out of the apartment, screaming something about a funeral and a pink headed pervert.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Levy asked for the millionth time, making her companion sigh in annoyance.

"Don't doubt me, Shorty," he growled, scoping the mall from their hiding space. Once again, at Levy's request, they were hiding behind a plant. This time, it was a gigantic fern.

"Don't call me Shorty," Levy huffed. Gajeel rolled his eyes and turned her head towards their targets, who were looking around with a stupid look on their faces that was apparently supposed to be determination. Well, the skinny one was, anyway. The fatter one just looked like he wanted to go home and eat some ice cream on the couch with his 20 cats.

"Let's move," Gajeel and Levy went into mission mode. After realizing their mistake in Operation Makeover, the two masterminds were forced to go to the next plan: Operation Shove a Date in their Faces. Obviously, randomly dropping the new boyfriend on the idiots didn't work, so now Levy and Gajeel were forced to actually act out a date while idiots 1 and 2 watched. Levy had dropped the hint that she was going on a date last time she talked to them, a hint that obviously didn't go unnoticed.

"Okay, a couple of stores, some food, and limited physical contact should work," Levy mumbled to him.

"I know, woman!" He grumbled, taking her hand and tugging her to the nearest store while their targets tried to inconspicuously follow them. The strange looks from the people passing around them was starting to annoy him.

"Why are we in Aerie?" Levy deadpanned. Gajeel looked around, surprised to find that they were indeed in the underwear store.

"It was the closest place," he shrugged, but underneath all that metal and uncontrollable hair Levy could tell he was embarrassed.

"Do you need me to measure you?" A store employee walked over with a bright smile on her face. It made Gajeel want to curl up and die. Well, maybe it was the fact that he was in a girl's underwear store, but her fake smile didn't help.

"No," Levy spat, the dark expression on her face making the girl slowly back away. Gajeel raised an eyebrow and looked at her, to which she replied by crossing her arms over her chest. Her tiny, tiny chest. Of course, she was a tiny person after all. Almost fairy-like, really. Wait, why was he talking about her chest again?

"Let's get out of here," Levy stalked out of the store. She may be small, but she was fast; Gajeel had to break into a jog to catch up with the pissed off girl. He shot a glance over his shoulder to check to see if the stalkers were still following them. They were, crouching behind a pillar with red faces that made them stick out like a sore thumb.

"Target's are still in pursuit."

"Good. Now, let's go to the bookstore!"

"What?"

"Trust me, it's a good plan!" Levy pulled her reluctant 'boyfriend' into her favorite store, Wizard's pages.

**(Jet and Droy vision)**

"Come on, Jet, it's obvious she wasn't lying," Droy tugged on his companion's sleeve, trying to pull him away from his hiding spot in the stacks of the bookstore.

"No," Jet growled, "I'm not giving up. Look at how awkward they are! It's not natural for that amount of space in a relationship."

"How would you know? You've never really been in one."

"Shut up, I just do."

"Okay," Droy was unsure, but decided that making his friend give up was only a sweet dream. So, he just picked up a book on cat care and got comfortable. They were going to be here for a while.

**(One day, I'm going to regret making Droy into a crazy cat man. But, that day is not today! Back to GaLe!)**

"They aren't going away," Gajeel groaned. Levy sighed and ceased her search, skimming her eyes over the room until she found Jet and Droy's obvious hiding place. They were definitely not giving up; well, Jet wasn't, but Droy seemed to move his affections from Levy to cats. He was still shooting glances in her direction, though.

"This is _your_ plan Gajeel, so you need to- oh my god, no way!" A thick volume on the top shelf caught Levy's eye. Kemu Zaleon's newest book, The Dragon's Tail! THIS WAS FATE! Rising on her toes, Levy reached as far as she could to reach her prize. Unfortunately, she was still too short. "Damn my height!" She muttered, staring at the book with longing. She willed herself to grow taller so she could get the book of her dreams, but alas, she had no such power.

Wait, was the bookshelf shrinking, or was she getting taller?

"Gajeel!" She squeeled, realizing the growing sensation was simply her gorilla of a slave picking her up. He rolled his eyes and gutted his chin in the direction of her prize. Levy blinked before understanding what he meant. She grabbed the volume greedily and ran to the nearest table the second he had put her on the ground. Buying the thing could wait. She needed to read it _now. _The table shook to indicate that Gajeel had returned to the table as well.

"Thanks," she smiled at him and went back to reading. As a response, Gajeel gave a small grunt and started to take a nap.

Well, he tried to anyway. The sound of someone was crying in the corner of the store kept him from actually sleeping.

* * *

"Juvia thinks she loves Gray-sama."

This was the first thing Mira heard today. Literally, she woke up in the wee hours of the morning to her cell phone's annoying ring. She answered it without thinking and had this bomb drop on her.

"What?" Was her intelligent answer.

"Juvia thinks she loves Gray-sama."

"Oh," Mira said, though she still didn't understand what her friend meant. She also suffered from morning stupidity. "Um, can you call me back at a normal time?"

"Okay, Mira," Juvia ended the call with a small click (she actually made the sound. It was a strange habit of hers ever since she got a cell phone) and Mira didn't think anything of the conversation until she woke up at her accepted time. It was then that Mira realized her best friend is in love with another one of her friends and holy crap, she shipped it almost as hard as she shipped Nalu.

She also realized her horrible problem with shipping real life couples and decided that she would try to stop. Not today, but another day.

Naturally, she tried to call Juvia, but apparently the woman was working today, as she was not answering the 32 calls and 20 texts that Mira had bombed her phone with. The matchmaker wasn't giving up, however. No, it would take much more to make her sway from her mission. So, she went to Juvia's job to ask her directly about her call.

"Juvia!" She marched over to the blunette, causing her swimming class to brake out in a chorus of 'oooohhhhh's. Yes, Juvia had a very nice job; all she did was teach kids (and the occasional adult) how to swim all day.

"Mira? What are you doing here?" Juvia asked, surprised to find her friend walking to the side of the pool.

"I'm here to address the call this morning."

"Can you ask when Juvia isn't having a class?

"No, come on!" Mira held out her hand.

"Um, kids, let's take a break!" Juvia hurried her class out of the pool, shoving snacks in their faces before turning to talk to her friend.

"My mom won't be happy when she hears about this," a random kid commented snootily. Mira turned on him and smiled. Not one of her really nice smiles, where it made you feel all fuzzy inside. No, it was one of those make-a-move-and-I'll-kill-you kind of sadistic smiles.

"I'm sorry, did I ask you to tell me what your mother will think?" Mira's eyes bore into the kids soul. Juvia, sensing her friend's malicious intent, shuffled the now emotionally scarred child away.

"Mira, can you not scare Juvia's students?" She asked.

"Sorry," Mira said, not looking sorry in the least, "Now, what did you tell me this morning?"

"Juvia said, 'Juvia things she loves Gray-sama.'."

"That's wonderful!" Mira screamed like an excited fan girl, "When did you two meet?"

"Juvia met him at The House of Aces," the girl blushed, shyly looking down at her toes.

"Wait, so you haven't actually gone on a date?" Mira deflated. It couldn't count if they only interacted at the House. Her dreams were going down the drain!

"No."

"I'll be right back," Mira grabbed her phone out of her purse and walked away. Seeing that the call might take a while, Juvia thought it was safe enough to bring her kids back into the water to continue their lesson. Mira felt bad, because the annoying little boy was right; if their parent found out that Juvia stopped her lesson to talk to her friend, she'd loose students. But, she had more pressing matters to attend to then her guilty conscious.

"Hello?" A deep voice answered her call.

"Gray? I need to talk to you."

* * *

_Where did he go?_ Lucy thought to herself, scanning the crowd for a familiar pink head. She had been chasing him around town for an hour, in and out of stores, only pausing their game of extreme tag to eat lunch. She felt silly, running around for hours after the same idiot. It wasn't just running either. Both of them had their fair share of ninja rolling into aisles, bouncing away on beds (that mattress store was never letting them back in) and pushing people into each other's path. No matter how ridiculous the situation was, she was having more fun then ever before. The only time she had played tag at her house was when the maids were trying to get her to take a bath. She never really liked being forcibly shoved into a tub of scalding hot water.

But, now she couldn't find her playmate. So, she turned tail and started to walk back to her apartment. Little did she know that a boy was right behind her, so when she changed course he slammed into her, causing both of them to spill across the sidewalk. There were grumbles from the people above as they adjusted their course to avoid the two people on the ground, leaving the act of helping them up to some other person who cared.

"Sorry," Lucy apologized, brushing herself off and reaching out a hand to help her victim up. He adjusted his glasses before accepting her hand with a bright smile, and Lucy couldn't help but notice that his black hair fell perfectly across his face, leaving both of his shining black eyes uncovered.

"It's okay, I wasn't paying attention either," he hoisted himself up and grabbed his bag off the ground. Lucy noticed a bunch of papers with elegant handwriting decorating the pages.

"Are you a writer?" She asked, mesmerized by the blush that dusted his cheeks at the question.

"Yeah, kinda," he scratched the back of his head.

"Don't be embarrassed, I am too!" Lucy said excitedly.

"Really?" He smiled, "Maybe we can get together sometime."

"Yeah," she probably looked really stupid with this happy look on her face. Who cares? This guy actually reads! It's so rare to find a human being who reads and writes and is still cute.

"Here," he scrawled something on a piece of paper and gave it to her. "I'm Zach, by the way."

"Lucy," she marveled at the numbers on the paper. He laughed at the look on her face and shook her hand.

"Well, Miss. Lucy, I'll see you soon," he waved and started to walk away. Lucy stayed still and watched him disappear from sight. What was this weird feeling in her chest? Why did her face feel so warm?

"Well then," A voice drawled next to her. Lucy looked over to find Natsu looking off in the direction Zach had walked off in, looking almost mad for some reason. "We have some work to do."

"Yup," Lucy nodded. She grabbed his arm and held it as tight as she could. "And guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm still angry with you," she started to drag him away.

The sound of their bickering filled the air.

* * *

**Hey guys! So, I'm starting my third day of school. My teachers keep on threatening about the work load my class has to endure because of the stupid testing regulations my state government decided to impose on us. Seriously, they're so stupid. I think I have to take 3 finals for the same class. Whatever. Sadly, this means that any hope of having a regular update schedule is out the window. Sorry, but I'll do it as often as I can! And actually, we aren't really that far off from the end. A bit more awkwardness to go and we're good!**

**And yes, writing about Zach was as painful for you as it was for me. **

**Till next time! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! NOT ONLY DO I LOVE THEM, BUT THEY MAKE ME WRITE QUICKER! WHY AM I STILL IN ALL CAPS RIGHT NOW?!  
**

**~NEVERMAKESSENSE (I CAN'T ESCAPE THE CAPITals- oh, there we go.)  
**


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